Superimposing a viewer-chosen private ad on a tv celebrity triggering an automatic payment to the celebrity and the viewer

ABSTRACT

A system and method including a device controller connectable to a network and a hardware device adapted to output an AV (audio and/or video) content item, configured to privately filter AV ads from a collection of public AV ads, wherein presenting a public AV item combined with a private AV ad causes a payment to be transferred to a credit account controlled by the viewer. A celebrity is emblazoned with an optical target wherein image recognition extracts chronologically variable coordinates defining an envelope for superimposing the private AV ad such that the origin, orientation and size of the private AV ad match the envelope, whereas the private AV ad appears to be stationary and affixed upon the celebrity, and causing a payment to be transferred from a credit account controlled by the owner of the private AV ad to a credit account controlled by the celebrity.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. Patent Application Ser. No.16/571,459 filed on Sep. 16, 2019, which is a continuation ofPCT/US18/22646 filed on Mar. 15, 2018, which claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/472,118 filed on Mar. 16,2017.

BACKGROUND

This patent application generally relates to technology used to controlthe audio or display output of audio or video hardware, and technologyused to manage and control exposure to content. Little detailed orautomated control is typically provided over the output of audio orvideo data in its many forms, relying instead on the whims of the datasource for presentation decisions and content transitions. The structureof the content is often at odds with the desires of the user, and thereare few ways for a user to conveniently define how content of differingtypes should be presented.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A first aspect of the disclosure provides for a system comprising aplurality of device controllers, wherein each device controller isconnectable to a network and is configured to integrate with a hardwaredevice adapted to output an AV (audio and/or video) content item, andwherein each device controller includes a system for generating responsedata that chronologically relates a user input to the AV content item;an interface associated with each device controller for receiving theuser input collected from a user while the AV content item is beingoutputted; a computing system in communication with the plurality ofdevice controllers, wherein the computing system includes: a process forgrouping chronologically related response data received from a subset ofdevice controllers; a process for detecting whether the chronologicallyrelated response data from the subset of device controllers comprises anAV event, and in response to detecting the AV event, transmitting adetected event indicator to each of the plurality of device controllers.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a method of altering deliveredAV (audio and/or video) content, comprising: providing a plurality ofdevice controllers, where each device controller is connectable to anetwork and is configured to integrate with an associated hardwaredevice, wherein each device controller includes an associated interface;receiving user inputs from a subset of the interfaces while an AVcontent item is outputted by at least one hardware device; generatingresponse data that chronologically relates the user inputs to the AVcontent item; transmitting the response data to a computing system thatis in communication with the plurality of device controllers; analyzingchronologically related response data obtained from the subset of devicecontrollers; detecting whether the chronologically related response datafrom the subset of device controllers comprises an AV event, and inresponse to detecting the AV event, transmitting a detected eventindicator to each of the plurality of device controllers.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a first source, a secondsource and a television system comprising a picture from the firstsource and a graphics processor such that an area within the picturespecified in a content map is modified to comprise elements from thesecond source, or modified to obfuscate elements within the area.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides for television muting, inputand channel switching by a remote computer over a network per settingsin a member profile.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides the delineation of content mapelements including commercial breaks occurring on a channel on atelevision system by the combined responses of a multiplicity of memberson a network.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides for a television systemcomprising a display and controlling hardware and software with multipleinput sources, whereby an input source is automatically changed based ona content map and settings in a member profile.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a television system comprisingaudio and video inputs, and a local computational device and remotecomputational device working in cooperation over a network such that theaudio and video inputs are switched automatically in accordance withmember settings such that non-negotiated ads and undesired content aremuted or replaced with desired content or negotiated ads.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a content map comprisingchronologically related specifications of elements including subjectiveelements occurring in a movie, video or television program, song orsound recording, live performance, video game, text in a book, magazine,newspaper or digital newspaper, or still image.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a television system comprisinga graphics processor and displaying a channel carrying a watermarkwhereby all the pixels of a sequence of frames are evaluated for thedynamic range of pixel luma over the duration of the sequence and agroup of pixels within a narrowed dynamic range of luma are collected todetermine the pixel area of the watermark.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides for the computationalidentification and reversal of a channel watermark based on a narrowingof dynamic range of pixel luma over a sequence of images.

Another aspect of the disclosure is a content map comprising the imagedata of a watermark, whereby the watermark is combined with the contentby a television system per a member profile.

Another aspect of the disclosure is a target grid and an interferencegrid situated between the target grid and an image sensor, whereby thetwo grids optically interfere to create a unique moire pattern.

Another aspect of the disclosure is a transparent display screen locatedin front of an image sensor comprising the display screencomputationally programmed to display varying grid patterns causingoptical interference with a target grid.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a transportable privateprofile of a human comprising facts and desires of the human, andfurther comprising knowledge, behavioral traits and linguisticconstructs of the human.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a simulacrum of a person thatcomprises a private profile of the person in combination with a genericartificial intelligence.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a secure computationalcontainer comprising a private profile and a standardized, secureinterface to a generic artificial intelligence.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a simulacrum comprisingcombining the profile of the person with generic AI engines of varyingdegrees of computational power, optionally comprising cost increasesbased on computational power.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides for computationally combiningtwo or more quantifiable responses of a human into a single traitmatrix, and further comprising the trait matrix modifying the linguisticoutput of a simulacrum.

Another aspect of the disclosure is providing two or more simulacra withprivate conferencing, such that some or all private knowledge andessence of the conferencing simulacra can be mutually shared inside ofthe computational space, further comprising that the details of theinformation exchanged by the simulacra is undetectable and unrecordable.

Another aspect of the disclosure is providing a question-and-answerinterface to a membership of simulacra, comprising member settingsconstraining responsiveness, answers and compensation;

Another aspect of the disclosure is providing a question-and-answerinterface to the simulacra of the deceased, comprising answers from thedeceased that comprise information about the deceased, such informationcomprising text, numbers, images, videos and audio recordings.

Another aspect of the disclosure is providing a dating service thatlocates compatible individuals based on a private virtual mind meldbetween the individual’s simulacra, comprising that the details of theexchange between the simulacra is undetectable and unrecordable.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a computational robot(hereafter meaning one or more robots) under a person’s exclusivecontrol that confidentially locates advertisements for products orservices for which the person may have an interest, and presents thoseads to the person when and where the person specifies.

Another aspect of the disclosure is printed material comprising amachine recognizable optical target whereby the target area issuperimposed upon with negotiated ads or content per the member’sprofile when the member views the printed material with a display orthrough a transparent device.

Another aspect of the disclosure is a virtual billboard comprisinggeospatial coordinates forming a virtual surface area or threedimensional volume upon or within which content is superimposed.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides for a payment to a member froma channel for not computationally reversing a watermark.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a member profile comprising apayment account and an advertiser profile comprising an ad reference anda payment account, and a computational process confidential to themember that negotiates mutually agreeable payment terms whereby thesubsequent exposure of the ad to the member causes the negotiatedpayment to be transferred to the member’s payment account from theadvertiser’s payment account.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides for a payment medallioncomprising an icon, text or sound correlated with an ad exposure thatvaries based on the negotiated terms.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides for a television such that apool of negotiated ads are exposed to a member interspersed withtelevision content in accordance with settings in a member profile.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides for negotiated ads to besuperimposed on a television over non-negotiated ads.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a human presence test wherebythe confirmation of the presence of a human modifies an ad exposurepayment.

Another aspect of this disclosure provides a content map comprisingchronologically related specifications of purchasable items whereby anitem may identified by a member without interrupting the content.

Another aspect of this disclosure provides a content map comprisingchronologically related specifications of intellectual propertycomprising the ownership, rules of access and recipients of accesspayments, whereby accessing the intellectual property automaticallycauses a payment to be made to a recipient.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a producer or broadcastchannel profile comprising a content reference and a payment account,and a computational process confidential to the member that negotiatesmutually agreeable payment terms for the member’s consumption of thecontent whereby the subsequent consumption of content by the membercauses the negotiated payment to be transferred to the producer orbroadcast channel’s payment account.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides that incremental payments paidby a member to a producer or broadcast channel are made in chronologicalrelationship to the consumption of the content.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides the redirection of negotiatedpayments due to a member by an ad exposure whereby all or a portionthereof of the payments are instead paid to a content producer orbroadcast channel chronologically related to the ad exposure to themember and the consumption of content by the member.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides an ad content map comprisingpersonalizable elements whereby text and images appearing with the adare confidentially tailored to suit a member per the settings in themember profile.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides for the payment fromadvertisers to the person for each exposure of the person to theadvertiser’s ad or brand, the amount for which is negotiatedconfidentially by the person’s robot.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a robot eliminating from theperson’s sight and other senses, ads and brand markings for which theperson has not requested exposure to and for which the person is notcollecting payment.

Another aspect of the disclosure is provides for the payment of content,goods and services purchased by a person by transferring some or all ofthe payments received by that person for their exposure toadvertisements, such payments optionally comprise being madeautomatically.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides predictive and automatedcontrol to a person over the exact nature of content, media and adsbefore the person is exposed to it.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a robot under the control ofan advertiser that publishes advertisements for parsing by the robots ofpotential customers, and negotiates pricing to pay interested customersfor being exposed to the ad content, while verifying the customer’sgenuine interest in the product and thwarting frauds.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a robot under the control of apublisher that negotiates with a prospective consumer’s robot for theautomatic payment of access to the publisher’s content, such paymentoptionally comprising compensation to the consumer for exposure to adschronologically related to the consumption of the publisher’s content.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a machine recognizable opticaltarget with an area or a volume, such that when observed on a display orthrough a transparent device, the target area or volume is superimposedwith content per a member profile.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a celebrity comprising aprofile and payment account and an optical target emblazoned on thecelebrity whereby when the celebrity is viewed by a member on a displayor transparent device, the target is superimposed with a negotiated ad,and a payment is transferred to the celebrity’s payment account.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides a first member with an opticaltarget and a personal message for a second member, and the second memberwith a display, whereby when the second member views the first member onthe display, the personal message is displayed to the second member.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides optical targets on amultiplicity of members or celebrities forming an area or a volumewhereby the superimposition of a negotiated ad causes payments to betransferred to the accounts of all the members or celebrities definingthe area or volume.

Another aspect of the disclosure provides the identification of a memberemblazoned with a target by computationally correlating a GPS memberlocation with the aim, field of view and GPS location of a camera.

These and numerous other aspects will be apparent from the detaileddescription, which is not intended to be limiting, and when takenaltogether with the drawings and the other information herein, discloseembodiments of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a guide to the other figures.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of the general money flow of the network;

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of joining and using the network and accumulatingcredit;

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of filtering and selecting ads to queue forconsuming by a member;

FIG. 5 is an image of a profile image fingerprint for machine matching;

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of exploring Maffle-curated ads;

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of blocking unwanted digital ads;

FIG. 8 is an ad with an inset Maffle payment medallion;

FIG. 9 is a drawing of a Maffle target appearing in a virtual 3Denvironment;

FIG. 10 is a drawing of a billboard with a Maffle target;

FIG. 11 is a printed newspaper bearing Maffle targets;

FIG. 12 is a flow chart of converting currency into Maffles (virtualcurrency) and back into currency;

FIG. 13 is a flow chart of spending credits;

FIG. 14 is a flow chart of purchasing content via ad consumption;

FIG. 15 is a timeline of broadcast stream replacements and paymentallocation;

FIG. 16 is a flow chart of a member buying goods & services;

FIG. 17 is a flow chart of watching streaming media;

FIG. 18 is a flow chart of one possible configuration for aMaffle-friendly internet news site;

FIG. 19 is a hardware block diagram of an embodiment of a Maffle TV;

FIG. 20 is a drawing of Maffle TV hardware components;

FIG. 21 is a flow chart of one possible Maffle TV implementation;

FIG. 22 is a flow chart of content map generation;

FIG. 23 is a timeline of one embodiment of a content map;

FIG. 24 is an isometric view of a temporal parameter solid;

FIG. 25 is an isometric view of a temporal parameter solid in sectionview;

FIG. 26 is a flow chart of watermark and banner masking and management;

FIG. 27 is a flow chart of one embodiment of watermark extraction;

FIG. 28 is a histogram of the dynamic range of a parameter of pixels ina frame;

FIG. 29 is a graph of pixel luma vs. time for eliminating pixels from achannel watermark extraction;

FIG. 30 is an isometric view of a stack of pixelated images bearing achannel watermark;

FIG. 31 is a drawing of a watermark visibility compensation indicator;

FIG. 32 is a flow chart of mobs participating in network mute timing;

FIG. 33 is a graph of a mob mute response curve;

FIG. 34 is a flow chart of the detection and superimposition of desiredcontent over targets or unwanted elements;

FIG. 35 is one embodiment of a target used for element superimpositionon a person;

FIG. 36 are two embodiments of superimposition targets on a person;

FIG. 37 is a diagram of an optical grid and garment grid pair used forcreating a detectable moire pattern by a distant camera;

FIG. 38 is a diagram of grid line spacing varying over the width of agrid pattern to create a unique moire pattern;

FIG. 39 are embodiments of superimposition targets with varying patternsand color combinations;

FIG. 40 is a flow chart of locating objects, elements and persons in aprogram stream;

FIG. 41 is a timeline of Maffle radio replacing ads and content permember profile;

FIG. 42 is a flow chart of the quantified personality of an individualpossessing a generic Al;

FIG. 43 is a diagram of network servers running containerized engineswith profiles;

FIG. 44 is a diagram of simulacra privately exchanging information fordating or other purposes;

FIG. 45 is a diagram of requesting information or asking questions ofsimulacra;

FIG. 46 is a diagram of issuing commands to a simulacrum and interveningwith a human presence testing requirement;

DETAILED DESCRIPTION Introduction

The description is not intended to be limiting, and one skilled in theart will recognize the extensive variations possible based on thedrawings and specification that now follow.

The subject of this disclosure is a new and heretofore unforeseencombination of technologies that together provide specific control overa user’s exposure to content, media and data in all forms on every typeof device and display surface, with a presumption and first prioritybeing the user’s privacy, and that any information about the user, andadditionally the user’s attention, has commercial value to the user.

An additional subject of this disclosure is a new and heretoforeunforeseen combination of technologies whereby exposure to anadvertisement is treated as a depletion of the life-energy of the livingwatcher or listener, which deserves compensatory payment in some formfor each exposure. An ecosystem is established whereby a world-widecommunity of human beings mutually agree and accept that it their rightnot to be exposed to any form of unwanted or unsolicited advertisement,brand marking or logo.

The community further recognizes the need to learn about and makedecisions regarding the consumption of goods, services andentertainments, and that the companies and individuals that provide suchthings deserve fair and equitable payment.

The human beings in this new community (hereafter referred to as MEMBERSor a MEMBER), now in an uncluttered, ad-free ecosystem throughout theirdigital and corporeal lives, and in the course of deciding that theywish to learn about a good, service or entertainment, ask to beadvertised to; in the preferred embodiment, the member gets paid by theadvertiser for each and every exposure to an ad, brand marking or logo.

A careful and new construct of technologies facilitates this newparadigm, in such a way that honors the sensitivity of the member,conveys the information they need to make purchasing decisions, andprovides a fair and profitable methodology for companies to inform theirprospective customers about their products in an open, rather thandeceptive and manipulative, manner.

An additional benefit of the aspects of this disclosure are the vastsavings provided to the producers of the various products and servicesby eliminating billions of useless ads that serve no purpose but toannoy virtually the entire human population, besmirch our environments,and enrich parasitic middlemen, aggregators and third-parties.

Furthermore, since the preferred embodiment provisions a roboticemissary, or simulacrum, for each member with which to negotiateautomatically with advertisers and producers and locate desired content,the simulacrum is also available to find a prospective mate, produceincome for the member by automatically answering opinion polls, answermessages and carry out errands. The simulacrum can further possess amechanical body and work in the member’s stead in the physical world.

In exchange for operating this new ecosystem and paradigm, (henceforthreferred to as MAFFLE — an alliteration of the acronym of “My Ad FreeLife” - M.A.F.L.), Maffle profits by any of the following methods,without limiting the additional methods possible, all without the needfor a single unsolicited ad:

-   1) charges made to advertisers for providing access to Maffle    members;-   2) charges for currency conversions between government-issued    currencies and a virtual currency (MAFFLES);-   3) profits from the sale of Maffle-produced devices such as    televisions, set-top hardware, computers, mobile devices, viewers    and heads-up glasses and displays with built-in ad exposure    management hardware and software;-   4) Each member is preferably provisioned with their own robotic    simulacrum as described in detail later in this disclosure,    therefore providing, for example, these three profit opportunities:    -   by charging for robotic simulacra services such as dating,        negotiating and conferencing;    -   by charging entities to poll and question member simulacra;    -   by charging to provide the perpetuation of the simulacra of        deceased members;-   5) by payment processing fees from purchases made by members using    credits from ad exposures;-   6) by a percentage of retail sales made from Maffle-friendly    storefronts and virtual shopping malls;-   7) by fees charged to merchants and content producers using a Maffle    server-side store or content module;-   8) profits from the sale of network hardware such as wi-fi routers    that pre-filter and sterilize incoming network content;-   9) licensing of Maffle ad-exposing technology to be incorporated    into the products and services of other companies, such as    television sets, set top hardware, cable and broadcast networks,    satellite and terrestrial radio and more;-   10) by purchase fees or percentages charged to producers of content    made for sale to members;-   11) by the sale of hardware privacy keys to members that verify    identity and store private information used by the Maffle system;    -   Each of the aspects introduced in this section are based upon        aspects described later in this disclosure in more detail.    -   A consumer joins Maffle and begins to develop a profile to which        only they have access and may edit. The profile preferably        comprises the quantifiable facts and measurable essence of the        consumer and is refined and improved upon by the consumer over        their lifetime with Maffle.

Automatic computational processes privately access the profile andcompare it with the target profiles of all the ads in the universeaccessible to the computational processes. An ad pool is determined forthe consumer and made available everywhere the consumer may see or hearan ad.

The consumer sets in their profile, the rules under which they wouldlike to be presented the contents of the ad pool, and during thesubsequent course of conducting their normal lives, see the adsinterspersed in a non-obtrusive manner, and furthermore collect apayment of money from each advertiser for each appearance of an ad,brand name or logo.

The money collected is subsequently or concurrently used to purchasecontent, goods or services.

Maffle Television Example

As a member watches TV, she sets her profile rating limit to PG-13because she is watching with her children. She sets the channel to herfavorite show, and turns on the display of ad pool ads during commercialbreaks. Now, as the family watches the show together and a moment ofexplicit violence occurs that exceeds the rating, that moment is mutedand blurred automatically by her television until the violence passes.At the commercial break, an ad about an appliance plays because she isshopping for a new dishwasher. A payment medallion appears on screen toshow that she was paid the equivalent of five dollars to watch the adbecause she has an excellent Maffle purchase history rating, and shewill receive a twenty-dollar coupon if she clicks the ad for moredetails. Her program resumes automatically at the end of the commercialbreak.

Introduction Cont

An additional and recognized benefit of the disclosure is that becauseeach ad has been solicited by a member who is contemplating a specificpurchase, the value of the ad to the advertiser is many times that of anindiscriminate ad. The advertiser will then happily pay many times theamount per ad view to use Maffle because the total number of ad viewsneeded is correspondingly smaller.

An additional aspect of the disclosure is a method to establish thecredibility of members to the advertisers. The internet is filled withfrauds and crooks, therefore a method is needed to reassure advertisersthat when a member solicits an ad and expects payment for such exposure,they are truly interested in the category of product for which they havemade their request.

Another aspect of the disclosure, and an additional and never beforecontemplated benefit of the virtual bank system of ad exposure creditsis that until a member had proven their veracity as a consumer, suchcredits can be taken away should such proof not materialize. Advertisersthen have a vehicle through which they may recapture advertising expensefrom ads shown to exposed weasels and the like. Additionally andspecifically for large purchases such as cars, houses and majorappliances, the credit may be optionally paid only after the proof of anactual purchase has been registered.

An aspect of the disclosure comprises a gradual building of member valueto the advertiser based on measured and stored correlation between thead requests in a given product category made by a member, and theirfuture actual purchase within that category. The longer the track recorda member has in Maffle whereby they have requested ads in a category,then proven that they have indeed made a purchase in that category, themore credit they receive from an advertiser for having endured exposureto their ad. Furthermore, the more willing the member is to forestallcredit payment until after the purchase is made, the higher the paymentfor each ad exposure may be. Additionally, Maffle serves as escrow andholds payments made by advertisers so they cannot renege on the paymentfor an ad exposure.

Display of Ad Exposure Credit With the Ad

Another part of the disclosure is the realtime display of how muchcredit a member is earning upon exposure to a given ad. Since the Mafflesystem inherently has control over each and every ad and when and whereand to whom it appears, it can also superimpose or indicate in anymanner exactly how much the advertiser is paying to the member for thatad.

Another brand new aspect never before contemplated is giving the memberthe means for objecting to all aspects of the ad, such as, since theynow can see exactly how much they are being compensated for that adexposure, the amount they are being compensated, the time of exposure,the sensitivity of the ad design and production and it’s offensiveindex.

Because of this feedback, each member can over time taylor their adexposures to fit within their personal tolerance limits and satisfactionwith offered compensation. Furthermore, the ad provider may be assesseda penalty, payable to the member, should the offensive index of the adexceed a certain threshold.

Content Map Content Rating System

Content maps are described in detail later for FIG. 23 . Any aspect ofany content including ads can be specified within a content map.

The content map comprises not just the chronological identification ofindividuals, things and events, but also of subjective elements such asthe “rating” of the storyline, action and images. Such ratings may beequivalent to the movie ratings G, PG, PG-13, R, etc. For example, if anactor appears in the nude, the region of nudity is determined and ratedand included in the content map. If, for example, a parent has chosen tomask all content rated PG-13 or higher, the region on the screen isautomatically masked, blurred, or otherwise made indiscernible. Thisapplies to occurrences of graphic or excessive violence. Ratings can bedetermined for the conversation in the story and the story line itself,so adult conversation and language can be identified in the sound track,and in/out points determined.

Now follows a detailed description of each drawing and the furtheraspects of this disclosure.

Guide to the FIGURES

Referring to FIG. 1 , which is a guide to the other figures, joining(FIG. 3 ) begins involvement with the Maffle ecosystem. The joining stepcomprises initial settings for aspects of the member’s personality,which may comprise ingesting a credit report and starting with atemplate of a similar personality and various ad “channels”. Once anymeasure of the member’s PROFILE, which comprises all theoreticaldimensions that may define who and what the member is, what they say,how they behave, what they believe and what they want (see FIGS. 5, 42and 43 ), ads may be curated for the member and buffered into an AD POOLper FIG. 4 . This ad pool is periodically updated to stay current, andis the source of all ads subsequently displayed to the member throughouttheir lives as they conduct their normal business and activities. It isaccessible via locally stored digital ads, or on network servers thatcan place the ads within any digitally accessible realm, includingbrowsers, apps, TV and radio and more per FIG. 6 , in addition toprinted and physical media. In FIG. 7 , a host of technologies attemptto block any ad outside of Maffle that is not accompanied with a paymentupon exposure to the member.

At FIG. 8 , informative MEDALLIONS are displayed in association with adscomprising how much a member is being compensated for exposure to thead. FIG. 9 depicts ad TARGETS displayed within virtual environments suchas games upon which ads from a member’s ad pool are superimposed, andFIG. 10 depicts an ad target on a physical billboard in public. In FIG.11 , a newspaper is printed with targets that can be superimposed withpool ads using a mobile camera, overlay glasses or the like.

At FIG. 2 , the money flow within the Maffle ecosystem is depicted,showing how money is given to advertisers by the entities consumers payfor goods and services. Such money is then paid to consumers forexposure to advertising, then back to the goods and services producers,optionally comprising various currency conversions. Absent from thisfigure are the third-parties that are the current recipients ofvirtually all advertising money. At FIG. 12 , advertisers join theMaffle ecosystem and purchase credits with which to compensate membersfor curated ad exposures. At FIG. 13 , Maffle credits are spent ongoods, services, content and entertainments, consumption optionallycomprising the step of collecting further credits for curated adexposures used to offset the cost of the content, as depicted in FIG. 14. At FIG. 16 a member buys goods and services using Maffle credits whichupdates their purchase history/consumption credentials and Maffle creditrating.

The remaining figures detail the operation of the Maffle ecosystem invarious consumption technologies and media types.

The following detailed descriptions of each figure combined with thefigures themselves comprise the many aspects of the disclosure, suchdescriptions not intended to be limiting. The myriad of possiblecombinations of the various aspects of the disclosure are numerous andwill be readily apparent to one skilled in art after reading thedisclosure in its entirety.

Money Flow

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of the general money flow of the network. In thepreferred embodiment, a majority of the money paid by an advertiser toexpose an ad to a member is paid directly to that member, preferably allof the money paid by the advertiser for that particular ad exposure. Theadvertiser preferably pays Maffle a fee for access to the ecosystem orcurrency conversion from real currency to virtual currency.Alternatively, Maffle charges a percentage of the amount paid to themember for an ad exposure. Maffle preferentially institutes aprogressive advertiser fee schedule for the purpose of increasing theadvertising cost for luxury goods and services and for members withprogressing income levels. The purpose of such a progressive schedulebeing to equalize the cost of operating the Maffle ecosystem as apercentage of individual member wealth.

In step 1, advertisers are paid to advertise by the collective ofcontent producers 5, network and content hosts 7, and the providers ofgoods, services and physical media 9. Advertisers are preferably paidcomprising Maffles 10 that have been paid by members/consumers 3 to thecollective within the Maffle purchasing ecosystem 17. Advertisers 1 givecurrency to Maffle, that charges a percentage of preferably 1-30 percent(based on a progressive schedule) to change the currency into a virtualcurrency (hereafter MAFFLES) 11. The advertiser is now within the Mafflead blocking & ad offering ecosystem 15, where it has access to allMaffle members/consumers 3. Members/consumers 3 accumulate Mafflesduring the course of their normal activity by being exposed to curatedads they have specified as having an interest in being exposed to, andspend such Maffles on the collective of goods, services and contentproducers, etc. Maffles are preferably exchanged between allparticipants within the Maffle ecosystem without fees. Maffles may beconverted back to international currency at 13 preferably at a charge of1-30 percent (based on a progressive schedule).

Joining and Using Maffle

FIG. 3 is a flow chart of joining and using the Maffle network andaccumulating credit. Consumers join Maffle and become members at 18, andare provided a suite of technology to block unwanted non-Maffle ads 20for which they are not being paid upon exposure. At step 34, a memberPROFILE is initialized preferably with an incentive for the membercomprising a benefit such as the automated extraction of the member’scredit report data from credit bureaus 35. Maffle preferably facilitatesthe transfer of the credit report or other data that would be temptingto manipulate by the member, such that a blockchain (see steps 426 and433 of FIG. 4 ) or other verification approach simultaneously generatesa data record that can be used in the future to validate voluntarydisclosure by the member of their credit history as described later andin FIG. 45 . Furthermore, and for example, the member’s network offriends may be exported from a social media platform and imported intotheir profile, as well as a purchase history from an online retailer.

The profile comprises the facts and desires of the member and ispreferably stored confidentially in an encrypted form by the member andis preferably non-extractable by Maffle or any other agency includinggovernments. The profile is stored digitally, electronically, opticallyor by using any present or future data storage technology. The profilemay be stored in an encrypted form on a network and accessed by themember from a variety of devices.

Maffle preferably maintains a record of the identity of each member,such record preferably stored at arms-length by an independentorganization outside of Maffle formed under an uncorrupt nation state.The independent organization preferably has binding rules that placerecord access limits on Maffle itself so that innocent privacy isstringently protected. Maffle is preferably therefore not an anonymousmember network in order to avoid member malfeasance.

At step 22, the member sets filters that determine which ads are exposedto the member in all possible formats such as digitally, on TV or radio.Filters comprise manually set toggles and descriptions of ad categories,products, vendors, formats, styles, brands and any quantifiable aspectof any possible ad. Setting the filters can comprise the step ofchoosing one or more ad CHANNELS, which are curated collections of adstailored for a particular type of individual comprising age, gender,lifestyle, geographical location, income, job, etc. The member canbrowse human representations and descriptions to locate the closestmatch to themselves as a way of initializing their profile settings.Referencing FIG. 42 , which will be described in detail later, amember’s profile preferably comprises a computational and datareplication of facts, characteristics, behaviors and desires of themember. Manually setting filters is a highly simplified way of settinginputs for optimal matching of ads to members. One skilled in the artwill readily determine the many additional ways of measuring and storingpersonality facets of individual members, such as reaction testing,physiological measurements, question and answer hierarchies, history ofconsumption choices, etc. See description of FIGS. 4 and 5 that follow.

At step 24, a computational engine comprising hardware and software(MATCHING ENGINE) analyzes the universe of ads cataloged by the Maffleecosystem, and compares them against the estimated and computed (andmanually set) desires of the member and target member attributes of theadvertiser. This process is further described in FIG. 4 , the details ofwhich will follow. The matching engine can be as simple as typicalfilter settings, for example, “I want to see all ads about refrigeratorswith prices lower than $1000”, but preferably comprises the step ofchoosing ads to pool based on a multi-dimensional model of the member sothat the member is pleased with the ad selections without having toalways explicitly choose exact ad parameters. This artificialintelligence and machine learning matching engine paradigm will bediscussed later and relates to FIGS. 4, 5 and 42 and 43 .

At step 38, the history of purchases made by the member are storedconfidentially, but verifiably. Over time, a numerical representation orRATING (SCORE/CLASS) evolves for the member. The rating comprises thelikelihood the member will eventually make a purchase within a categorythe member has specified as a category of interest. The rating mayfurther comprise the amounts spent and any other conceivable detailabout item purchases. The member purchase history and rating are used bythe matching engine to calculate how much the member will be paid for adexposures, and preferably correlates with how much the advertiser paysMaffle for exposing ads to that member. For example, a member with ahigh rating and who spends a lot of money, preferably gets highcompensation per ad exposure and pays Maffle high fees for exposing adsto that member. The higher fees may be in the form of a higherpercentage paid to Maffle per ad exposure, or preferably with higherfees for access to the Maffle ecosystem as a whole. Higher fees forwealthy members or luxury goods may also be in the form of highercurrency exchange fees (see FIG. 12 ) or during the step of usingMaffles to purchase goods, services or entertainments.

Step 38 preferably comprises the step of starting with a low defaultrating for new members that allows for advertisers to pay startingamounts at a low rate until the member establishes credibility forfollowing through with related purchases. This step further may compriseputting ad exposure credits into escrow, so that new and developingmembers don’t receive any payments until they begin making purchases.

Step 38 further comprises the step of Maffle computationally verifyingall transactions made by a member while maintaining the member’sprivacy. A blockchain is one possible way to securely record and verifya member’s purchase history so that it cannot be faked by a malfeasantmember. The blockchain is preferably updated automatically when themember makes any purchase from vendors registered within the Maffleecosystem, otherwise the blockchain may be manually updated by Mafflevia evidence using digital or physical receipts.

As will be described in FIG. 4 and others, the matching engine cananalyze and access the member’s profile in isolation from Maffle itselfso that Maffle need not store or have access to any private informationabout the member.

At step 40 the balance preferably in Maffles but alternatively ingovernment issued currency is registered for the member and is added toor subtracted from based on ad-related interactions and purchases.

At step 56 advertisers register ads with Maffle such registrationcomprising the step of specifying the ad content and the desired targetmembers for the ad. See FIG. 4 .

At step 28, human presence testing may be utilized to modify ad exposurepayment amounts and member profile ratings and credentials. Such testingis comprised of fingerprint capturing, infrared imaging, retinascanning, voice recognition, body motion measurement, physiologicalmeasurements, for example of brainwaves, the proximity of a detectabletissue implant or wearable device, or any current or future way toconfirm that a human is either present or paying attention.

A member who is more often confirmed present and paying attention duringad exposures may merit higher payments in general or per exposure. Forexample, a popup on TV asking for presence confirmation is satisfiedwith a thumbs up or finger raise, or perhaps a shouted “Plus one” or“Booya!”, which increases the collected Maffles for an ad exposure.Alternatively, a hot IR lump detected on a couch distinguishable from adog ought to be sufficient. It should be noted that in the current TVadvertising paradigm, there is zero human presence testing while ads aremuted or play to empty rooms.

At step 26 members have the option to rate and reject ads based on anycriteria, such as whether or not the ad is wanted, if it offends themember, or if it pays an inadequate amount for the exposure orincentives. Members may penalize advertisers with charges if theymis-represent an ad or underpay the member. Members with highercredentials and ratings may charge higher penalties for offensive ads.At this step, advertisers may also offer additional credit to membersfor providing feedback about the ad, such as it’s production quality,appeal and effectiveness, over and above the interest the member has inthe product advertised. Ads with low ratings may require higher exposurepayments throughout the entire Maffle ecosystem or be blockedaltogether.

At step 30 members may choose to click or explore ads, which preferablyprovides them additional credits. Such bonus fees and the default feesare preferably visible with the ad exposure as now described.

Maffle Medallions

Referring now to FIG. 8 , which is an image of an ad with an insetMaffle payment MEDALLION 534, a Maffle-sanctioned ad that has been addedto the member’s ad pool per FIG. 4 , which through a preferablycomputer-mediated, i.e. robotic, negotiation (or data filtering paradigmfamiliar to one skilled in the art) between the advertiser and themember, determined an acceptable payout to the member for an exposure,is displayed to the member, for example, while they are browsing theinternet. As will be described in FIG. 6 and elsewhere, the ad mayalternatively appear anywhere within the Maffle ecosystem whichcomprises the universe of all the possible places an ad or brand logo orname can be exposed to a member.

In the lower right corner of the ad image, a preferably but notnecessarily clickable medallion is superimposed preferably over the ad534. One skilled in the art will recognize all the possible places sucha medallion can appear in relation to the ad, such as adjacent to thead, or partly or completely hidden until hover brings up an informationwindow, etc. Alternately, the medallion information can be displayedelsewhere on the device or on another device. This disclosure relates tothe payment and bonus information being made available preferably to themember comprising near the time the ad is exposed, simultaneously,before or after.

The medallion 534 preferably is readily recognizable graphically atsmall size and comprises the payout amount 535 to the member for themere appearance of the ad, either preferably in Maffles, or in agovernment-issued currency. Another payout amount 536 the member willreceive upon clicking or further inquiry may also appear, such amountpreferably being higher than the appearance amount 535. This incentiveamount 536 may be in the form of a bonus such that the member will notcollect it unless the member makes a purchase of the product or withinthe product category. The terms of the bonus rules preferably comprisebeing negotiated in advance by the robots of the member and theadvertiser, or by conventional computational filtering and matchingknown to one skilled in the art.

Additional icons or indications of further incentives of any number ortype, may optionally be presented to the member, such as, for example, aspecial red-tag sale 537, or special additional bonus incentive 538 as acoin stack, whereby investigating the ad further results in additionalpayouts. At step 26 in FIG. 3 and described previously, the member maynegatively rate the advertiser or request additional payment if suchadditional incentives prove to be inadequate or falsely presented.

Another aspect of this disclosure is providing a “leave a tip” selectionoption preferably with the medallion, so members may gift Maffles todeserving artists and entities. Another aspect is a profile settingwhereby a tip of a preset amount or percentage is given to a recipientautomatically upon otherwise signifying appreciation of the work of therecipient.

Another aspect of the disclosure related to payment medallions is a coinor other icon representing value that appears briefly preferably with atogglable sound signifying a payout into the members balance, when themember takes an action that earns Maffles, such as shooting an unwantedad in the Moon Hunter game described later. Such “coin banking” mayappear for actions taken anywhere within the Maffle ecosystem. Bonus maybe paid and coins collected if members make ad-related selections oracknowledgements within certain time frames, and alternately in relationto human-presence testing.

Another aspect of the disclosure described later in FIG. 17 and others,is using ad exposure payments to compensate content producers,preferably in close chronology to consuming the content. For example,while watching a program on television, an ad is shown during acommercial break along with a payment medallion. When the ad concludes,a message comprising a visual, audio or numerical event, preferablyrelated to the medallion, indicates that some or all of the paymentcredited for the ad exposure is being paid to the content producer.

For audio-only ads, equivalent information may be provided to the memberin the form of tones or audio clips, such as informative beeps andboops, and available for further details visually elsewhere on theplayback device or on another of the member’s devices. For example, asatellite radio player may display digits representing payments in acorner of the text display showing the station and song playing,including a running total of payments collected in the last increment oftime such as an hour, day, etc. Maffle-friendly radios are furthermorepart of this disclosure as a source of licensing revenue for Maffle. AMaffle-friendly radio comprises a dedicated visual display indicatingMaffle ad payments, and optional selectors for purchasing songs andtipping artists. Another aspect of the disclosure is a close-range dataconnection such as bluetooth comprising transmitting Maffle paymentinformation to a nearby device. See FIG. 41 for additional detailsregarding radio.

Joining and Using Cont

Returning to FIG. 3 , At step 32 credits for ad exposure are added tothe members balance, and at step 42, bonus incentives for furtherexploration or clicking of an ad 536 (FIG. 8 ) are queued for possiblecollection based on mutually accepted criteria between the advertiserand the member.

At step 44 the member buys a product related to their profile settings,which updates their profile credentials and improves their rating andpotential payment amounts for future ad exposures. Bonuses are collectedand may be higher if a particular brand is purchased or simply based onpurchase within a particular product category. At step 48 time-limitedbonus offers accepted in step 42 are collected and added to the member’sbalance at step 46 if within the time limits, or expire in step 50 ifnot. Further ad exploration continues at step 52.

The maximum amount paid to any single member for ad exposures for aproduct or product category may be limited to match a company’sadvertising percentage expense against the cost of a product or to afixed maximum, allowing a company to limit the total percent paid foradvertising, or may be limited to the maximum percentage advertisingexpense for an average cost product for all products in the category. Inthis manner, companies will not exceed an advertising budgetindividually or as a market segment, and no member will collect adexposure payments out of proportion with the value of a product.Payments to members may further be limited over periods of time,factoring in purchase history and consumption credentials.

Currency Conversion

FIG. 12 is a flow chart of converting currency into Maffles (virtualcurrency) and back into currency. The following description is notintended to be limiting as one skilled in the art will recognize fromreading this disclosure other combinations of banking and recordingpayment transactions using government-issued currency or virtualcurrency. None of the aspects of this disclosure depend upon Mafflevirtual currency or any other form of virtual currency to be put intopractice, and may be implemented for example using US dollars, Euros orany other currencies or legal tenders.

At step 157 currency enters the Maffle ecosystem. At step 159, anadvertiser preferably transfers payment to Maffle in order to offer ads,which Maffle puts into escrow against accrued ad payments credited tomembers or any other debit. Alternatively, advertisers with excellentcredit may be on account and occur debt that is later reconciled withperiodic payments. At step 161, Maffle transfers payment into thebanking system and uses it for a variety of investment purposes at 163such as money market accounts, treasury bills, stock investments, etc.At step 165 the advertiser’s payment is converted into Mafflespreferably at an exchange rate computed by a fixed formula weightedagainst US dollars and a basket of stable currencies, preferably updateddaily. Since Maffle is a world-wide ecosystem, an agnostic currencyvaluation is desirable so purchases may be made globally using Maffles,regardless of the daily movement of a particular currency. Furthermore,the averaging of the value of Maffles against multiple currenciesprovides incentive for participants in the Maffle ecosystem to leavetheir balances invested in Maffles.

At step 167 the profile of the advertiser (step 440 in FIG. 4 ) iscredited with the payment and carries a balance in Maffles. Analternative embodiment of Maffle valuation is at step 173, where Mafflescomprise having a fixed value in relation to a government-issuedcurrency such as US dollars, and additionally, escrowed funds may beinsured with funds on deposit at banking institutions. At step 169,Maffle preferably charges a transaction fee as a varying percentage ofthe amount added to the advertiser balance. Maffle preferably considersthe commodity or luxury aspects of the products the advertiser ispromoting, as well as the income and purchase history of the memberstargeted by the advertiser.

An aspect of this disclosure is delaying the computation and declarationto the advertiser of the transaction fee until after the exposurepayments for a representative sampling of target members has beennegotiated by the robots of the parties or determined computationally,shown at step 170, such fee comprising being higher than an average feewhen the target member’s incomes are higher than average income, andfurther comprising being higher if the product is a luxury product. TheMaffle currency conversion fee is preferably progressive.

At step 171 members earn Maffles by being exposed to ads and relatedincentives throughout the Maffle ecosystem in ways further described inFIG. 3 and FIG. 6 and elsewhere in this disclosure.

At step 175 members spend accumulated Maffles to purchase content, goodsand services as described in FIGS. 13, 14, 16, 18, 17, 21 and elsewherein this disclosure. At step 181 Maffle preferably charges the member avariable transaction fee for purchases less than typical credit cardfees, for example one percent of the purchase price, such feespreferably being higher for luxury goods and services. Maffle may chargethe fees to the merchant instead of the member per typical bankpractice.

At step 183 because the transaction fee is less than bank issued creditcard fees, the merchant preferably lowers the price when a memberpurchases the product using Maffles instead of government-issuedcurrency. For example, at step 187 if the merchant reduces the productprice by two percent, and the member pays a one percent fee to Maffle,the member still saves one percent off the price of the product. Themerchant also saves one percent, since the merchant would have otherwisepaid a three percent fee to the bank credit card issuer.

At step 185 merchants and producers accumulate Maffles by sellingproducts to members or between themselves. At steps 179 and 189preferably when a minimum balance of Maffles has been accumulated by amember or other Maffle ecosystem participant, the Maffles are convertedback to government-issued currency (or any other form of currencyincluding other virtual currencies such as Bitcoin or Paypal balances),such exchange rate preferably being calculated as the reverse of thatdescribed previously, and transferred back into the banking system. Atstep 191 Maffle preferably charges a transaction fee for convertingMaffles to currency, in accordance with steps 169, 170 and 171 describedabove in preferably a progressive manner.

Alternatively, no fee is charged for converting Maffles to currency,when fees are charged for converting currency to Maffles and vice-versa.The combination of fees charged at various steps of transferringcurrency and Maffles between ecosystem participants is not intended tobe limiting and one of skill in the art will recognize the manycombinations possible based on the entirety of this disclosure.

At step 177 members transfer Maffles to other members preferably withoutany fees. Such member-to-member direct payments are useful forclassified ad-type selling or auction selling, and one aspect of thedisclosure is a Maffle auction and classified selling web site, wherebyall items are preferably paid for with Maffles with or without listingcharges, thereby avoiding typical bank transaction fees. See FIG. 6 step489.

Ad Matching and Queuing Part I

FIG. 4 is a flow chart of filtering and selecting ads to queue forconsuming by a member. The left column labeled “Member” indicatesprocessing and data under the control of the member. The center columnlabeled “Maffle” indicates processing and data under the control ofMaffle, and the right column labeled “Ad Authors” indicates processingand data under control of advertisers.

“Ads” comprise advertisements in any form, brands, logos, and anyinformation about products, services and entertainments, and is notintended to be limiting. Anything about which a calculation candetermine a probability of member interest in, may be called an ad forthe purpose of describing the aspects of this disclosure.

At periodic intervals, a subset of all the ads in the universe that canbe displayed within the Maffle ecosystem are computed and extracted tomatch the desires of each Maffle member, such that ads within the subsetmay be exposed to the member upon request or in the course of theirnormal activities.

Ads are chosen by a computational system comprising hardware andsoftware (robot) using the desires of the member compared against thefacts, essence, customer behavior and makeup of individual ads wherebyan ad is determined to have a high probability of being of interest tothe member and the member is of interest to the advertiser.

The desires of the member are computationally determined usinginformation comprising one or a combination of: information providedpersonally by the member, such as answers to questions, yes/no toggles,multiple choice answers, numerical information, statements in language,vocalizations, body behaviors, physiological responses or any memberinput recorded by a device-settings familiar to one skilled in the artas preferences, account information, personal or health history,settings or the like, (see FIG. 3 step 22); member identification withcurated life “channels”, for example with ads chosen for a certain typeof person and lifestyle (step 430); choices made for the member byanother person familiar with the member, and as calculated by acomputational system (robot) using data taken from the universe ofsources that comprises the facts, essence, behavior and makeup of themember, for example records of internet exploration by the member,content consumption, product purchases and public records.

For example at step 430, a member subscribes to the curated channel of afavorite lifestyle magazine that influences the matching engine 422 and436 regarding product choices for the member’s infrastructure, style,and personal efficiency.

At step 420, the profile of the member begins interaction with theMaffle ecosystem. The profile, in continuation of the profile introducedin FIG. 3 , comprises the purchase history and “rating” of the member,such rating comprising a comparable scale that is a measure of themember’s trustworthiness, timeliness and spending power. The rating maybe comprised of scores in many different categories or a summation. Therating may comprise the duration of Maffle membership and otherchronological aspects of ad consumption and spending. The purchasehistory is preferably encrypted and private but verifiable by Maffle atstep 433 using a method such as a blockchain so that a member cannotinsert false purchases or tamper with their rating, scores andcredentials.

At step 427, the profile further comprises their network of friends andrelationships, and personal details at step 428, such as facts andfigures of their life - place of birth, birth date, gender, physicalcharacteristics, etc. At step 429, the member’s behavior and digitalhistory is stored.

The privacy of the member’s profile is of extreme importance, so theprofile is preferably encrypted and unreadable by Maffle or any agencyincluding governmental agencies, thus preventing hackers from stealingthe otherwise centralized data of many members.

Profile Simulacra Part I

Referring now to FIG. 42 , which is a flow chart of the quantifiedpersonality of an individual POSSESSING a generic AI (artificialintelligence), a member’s profile AI is preferably a roboticrepresentation of the member that may be dispatched by the member toperform desired tasks - a SIMULACRUM. The profile and simulacrumtherefore require the same privacy protections as the member themselvesas the robotic representation embodies as much knowledge as possibleabout the member and eventually will become a de facto clone of themember as the power of computation and artificial intelligenceprogresses into the future. Furthermore, the simulacrum requirespower-of-attorney and effective co-ownership of the possessions of themember in order to serve as an autonomous representative of the memberfor all possible tasks, further strengthening the need for the equalprivacy protections of a member and their simulacrum and profile.

The preferred embodiment is the establishment of member profilesintegrated with evolvable computational constructs that over time, andwith the evolution of computers and machine intelligence, may bedispatched to perform autonomous tasks on behalf of the member, suchtasks for example comprising building an ad pool of desirable ads.Simulacrums may further comprise mechanical bodies that move and performphysical operations as emissaries of a member comprising detailedknowledge about the member.

This preferred embodiment is not meant to limit in any way the moreconventional ways in which a member profile may be used to build, forexample, an ad pool. This more conventional approach, still highlyuseful and commercially viable, is for member profiles and adspecifications to be computationally queried similar to databases tolook for matches by an application running either on a network or amember-controlled device.

Furthermore, this description of AI possession does not in any way limitthe other ways in which machine intelligence may enhance a memberprofile, for example, a self-contained AI running as an application onone or more computers under the control of the member, may query theprofile data of the member in order to determine the behavior andresponse of the AI to inputs and to carry out tasks. This configurationmay not require containerization for privacy purposes.

Thus, a simulacrum is defined for the purposes of this disclosure as anyaspect of a profile subject to computational interaction and is notintended to be limiting.

At step 820, an AI computational model running on one or anetwork/cluster of computers (computing system) provides a responsiveengine that mimics the thought and feeling processes of a generic,average or neutral human or superhuman (there being no reason to limitthe capacity of the AI model). The AI comprises language, sensory, motorand numerical inputs and outputs. The AI comprises any number ofalgorithmic, procedural and neural network subprocessing modules(performing any kind of computation or pattern processing) centrallyorganized to process and respond at various outputs to any input.

The quantification of an aspect of a particular individual can be seenas the difference between the way the generic AI and individual respondin that aspect. Each aspect of the AI that can be overlaid with thisdifference in a profile can be called a SOCKET.

At step 821, an interface between the private profile socket settingsand the generic AI engine prevents the socket settings from beingmeasured or recorded. Data passing between the primary AI engine 820 andthe container engine 821 is preferably encrypted 845.

Containerized Engines and Profiles

Now referring to FIG. 43 , which is a diagram of network servers runningcontainerized engines with profiles, two ways of containerizing profilesare shown. One skilled in the art will recognize that there are manypossible ways to isolate private data so that computations may be madeusing the data without revealing it to outside processes.

At 855, a server running a Virtual Machine with an Operating System (VMOS) such as Linux, preferably has multiple containers executing insidethe VM, such that each container 856 comprises a private profile and anengine application for reading and interacting with the profile andoutside processes at 859.

An alternative embodiment 857, has a server running multiple VM’s, eachwith a single engine application and profile 858.

Profile Simulacra Part II

Returning to FIG. 42 , knowledge sockets 822 and any profile aspect thatcan be reasonably computed by the containing resource can remain insidethe container, while, for example, neural network and computationallyintensive aspects are computed by the primary AI engine. At steps825-831, knowledge sockets are stored and made available to theinterpretive engine 821. One skilled in the art will recognize all thepossible categories of knowledge and facts. The knowledge comprised at822 endeavors to comprise all the knowledge of the member. The primaryAI engine 820 comprises the universe of all knowledge. Preferentially,the simulacrum responds with only member knowledge when important toclosely impersonate the member, but with access to all knowledge whenthat is more beneficial to the member. An aspect of this disclosure iscomputationally establishing the knowledge known by a simulacrum bysubtracting the areas of knowledge defined as not known by a profilefrom the universe of knowledge preferably comprised within thecomputational environment.

The preferred profile embodiment comprises a computational module withinthe container 845 or the primary AI engine 820 that differentiatesknowledge a member treats as personal and private, such as income, homeaddress, account numbers and passwords, and knowledge the member woulddisclose without first requiring a justification from the inquirer, suchas general answers about the city where the member lives, pop cultureopinions and the like. In this way, a text conversation may be initiatedwith the simulacrum by a friend, stranger, or recognized entity withescalating levels of trustworthiness to receive private knowledge.Likewise, the simulacrum may be safely dispatched to perform chores forthe member with instructions such as “go have my bank transfer $500 frommy savings to checking”, or “contact First Graft Bank and get theircurrent mortgage rates, but use my junk email account”. An aspect ofthis disclosure is associating a variable privacy value to an element ofknowledge of a simulacrum, such that interactions with entities ofvarying trustworthiness are provided varying degrees of privateknowledge based on a trustworthiness value.

At step 823, response and trait sockets quantify the unique way a memberresponds to all combinations of inputs, such responses comprisingaffecting linguistic output.

Profile Image Fingerprints

Referring to FIG. 5 , which is an image of a profile image FINGERPRINT,matrices of different but related response measurements of a member canbe represented as an image 870. Colors and levels of gray formrepresentations of strength fields that may be better suited forcomputer matching, image recognition, machine learning andinterpretation. For example, aspect matrix A at 871 may be theconversion into an image data space, of the physiological response of amember to a series of standardized images of things that createhappiness 834 (FIG. 42 ), modulated by things that create anger 835. Anynumber of fields with informative combinations of responses can bedevised, preferably related to the neurophysiology of humans. Forexample, categories of responses that happen in a common area of thebrain, such as the amygdala can be measured and represented withcomplementary fields. Many areas of the brain have been mapped asresponsive and in control of particular categories. Fingerprintspreferably comprise relating responses and traits found together in anarea of the human brain, or otherwise neurologically or cognitivelyrelated.

Profile image fingerprints can be a stack of aspect images, each ofwhich represents a different personality aspect, labeled as aspectmatrices B and C. The stack altogether is the complete fingerprint-matching can take place for sub-images or the combined stack.

The parameter space may alternatively be a three dimensional abstractpattern, as described in more detail later after FIG. 23 , and furthercomprise being animated over time to chronologically represent humanresponses over time. For example, how long it takes for anger todissipate for a particular member is used as a response socket for themember’s simulacrum. Since the residual state of anger a person isexperiencing effects what they say, the decay of emotional states is anecessity for accurate simulacra.

An aspect of this disclosure are human-readable fingerprint tilescomprising topographical images automatically generated using two ormore physiological or neurological response measurements of a person toa stimulation. For example, a mosaic of multiple human readablefingerprint tiles may be used to visually match traits of differentpeople with a glance-useful for dating and friend finding.

Profile Simulacra Part III

Returning to FIG. 42 , one skilled in the art will recognize that othermethods of storing the responses of a member that can overlay a primaryAI engine socket to match its response to that of the member arepossible, and do not require data space conversion into images. Forexample, neural net weightings established for a member for a happinesssubprocessor may replace or superimpose the weightings in the primary AIengine.

At step 847 profile fingerprints as discussed for FIG. 5 may be used toset socket parameters. Steps 832-839 are examples of responses andtraits and are not intended to be limiting. At step 832, an aspect ofthis disclosure is certain initial member traits and responses set todefaults based on the member’s DNA, the genes of which may be correlatedwith documented traits and responses.

At step 824 (FIG. 42 ) the linguistic constructs of the member arequantified beginning with their language(s) 842. A mobile phone iscapable of storing the transcription of every phrase and word a personwill ever utter or write in their lifetime 840, so the vocabulary 841,grammar and phraseology of the simulacrum is preferably derived from thespeech of the member as recorded over time. Until a linguistic model fora member is accumulated over time, a curated dialect 846 is preferablyused. The evolutionary, computational goal of the simulacrum is toanswer any question put to it identically to how the member themselveswould answer. In this manner, a text conversation with the simulacrumwould be indistinguishable from a conversation with the corporealoriginal, thereby passing the Turing test. A further aspect of thedisclosure comprises modeling the linguistic constructs of a member bystoring the difference between how the member answers a question, andhow the generic AI answers the question. Another aspect of thedisclosure comprises answers made by a member’s simulacrum beingcorrected later by the member, the difference between the two answersthereby automatically modifying the profile.

At 843, the primary AI engine 820 is possessed on demand in rotation bymultiple profiles and members, thereby timesharing computationalresources. One skilled in the art will recognize that multiple primaryAI engines running as independent processes and infinitely scalable maybe deployed on a worldwide hardware infrastructure to service a largenumber of members simultaneously.

An aspect of this disclosure is timesharing generic Al’s of varyingdegrees of intelligence to a group of members, such that all membersperiodically possess the generic AI of the highest intelligence.

An aspect of this disclosure is increasing the wisdom of a generic AIby: removing the knowledge of a historic problem that had a goodsolution from a generic AI and from a group of individual profiles;sequentially possessing the generic AI with each profile in the groupand asking each possessed AI for a solution to the historic problem;forming a sub-group comprised of the profiles whose possessed Al’sprovided the correct solution to the historic problem; modifying thegeneric AI with a common aspect of the sub-group.

Another aspect of this disclosure is simulacra representing groups andorganizations such as corporations, institutions, governments andpolitical bodies. No limitation is implied in this disclosure about thetype of entity that can have a profile and possess a generic Al.

Ad Queuing Cont

Returning to FIG. 4 , at step 440 ad authors create and maintain anadvertiser’s account and profile in the Maffle ecosystem, furtherdiscussed in FIG. 12 . A single ad author account may represent multipleadvertisers or companies.

At step 441 ad authors register advertisements with Maffle, whichcomprises access to the ad content, facts about the ad and its author,characteristics and dimensions of the ad, the ad’s desired target memberattributes and payout matrices, altogether called ad specifications.Payout matrices comprise the negotiable terms the advertiser will acceptfor payments made for ad exposures to members over the complete range ofprofile purchase history and ratings, and may include tapering paymentsto discourage the delaying of product purchases.

The specifications preferably comprise content maps, discussed in detailin FIG. 23 , that describe the chronological content of the ad,including text fields, 2D areas and 3D volumes that may be used topersonalize the ad at step 443 with information or content tailored forthe member as permitted by the member’s profile settings and discussedin more detail later in this section.

Ad specs may further comprise ad fingerprints per FIG. 5 that may beused to machine recognize target members based on similarity to memberprofile fingerprints or image maps. At step 420, fingerprints can begenerated using rolling map algorithms so that fingerprints cannot bereverse-engineered to determine private profile elements, but can bepublished, one embodiment being in the form of human viewable picturetiles in two or three dimensions. The ad specs may comprise questionsfor member profiles, either in the form of standard question filterssearching for a percentage of affirmative answers, or as a matrix ofquestions to be posed to member simulacrums to determine mutualinterest.

One embodiment is in the form of a robotic conversation between a membersimulacrum and the advertiser’s simulacrum. Similar to the possessed AIdiscussed above for FIG. 42 , ad authors can have profiles that inhabita generic AI to create a simulacrum of their own. This description isnot intended to be limiting, as any form of machine intelligence orcomputational method that can interact with the data of a body ofmembers to locate ones with attributes in desired patterns isrecognizable to one skilled in the art when combined with the elementsin this disclosure.

Referring back to FIG. 42 , the simulacrum of an ad author is preferablya subset of that of Maffle members, comprising knowledge sockets 822with the ad specs and delegated with the task of locating appropriatemembers. Response and trait sockets 823 may be in the form offingerprints for ads, and traits that reflect the feeling and content ofthe ad. Linguistic constructs 824 are suitable for the country of originand interest. Alternatively, the ad author’s simulacrum is that of anactual or hypothetical member who is given the knowledge of all aspectsof the ad, and tasked with finding suitable members to expose it to perthe role of a marketing manager.

At step 435 (FIG. 4 ) ad specs are made accessible by Maffle to members.Members may download the specifications or condensed headers of theentire universe of available ads for matching on member’s devices 421,or download only a subset of specifications or headers based onnarrowing filters. At step 422 a computational engine comprisinghardware and software (matching engine) analyzes the ad specificationsand compares them against the fixed, estimated, computed and manuallyset desires of the member and target member attributes of theadvertiser.

The matching engine generates an AD POOL comprising the subset of adsdetermined to be targeted at the member and meritorious of exposure tothe member. The matching engine may be in the form of a simulacrum(s) aspreviously described, or as an application running on a local device ornetwork server. A network matching engine under the control of Maffle436 may generate the ad pool independently or in cooperation with themember’s local matching engine. The network matching engine 436preferably runs inside a private container with isolated access to anencrypted profile. The algorithms used by the local matching engine 422are preferably updatable via the Maffle network.

The ad pool preferably comprises payment amounts negotiated orcalculated for all types of individual ad exposure and exploration bythat particular member, the amounts preferably varying depending on thepurchase history and rating of the member and the member’s profilesettings. A member may additionally allow “wildcard” ads to periodicallyappear that were not selected for the member’s ad pool by the matchingengine, but at a higher cost to the advertiser. The member may choosehow often wildcard ads appear for a satisfyingly unpredictabledistribution of ads. The ad pool also preferably comprises ads payingthe highest amounts for exposures, other aspects being equal. In thismanner, ad authors bid among themselves as an auction for the right toexpose themselves to members.

The ad pool preferably further comprises 2D and 3D software models andimages of each object or product for superimposition throughout theMaffle ecosystem, for example for placing a favorite car inside a movieper the movie’s content map (see FIG. 23 ), or populating a virtualdepartment store with desired products (see FIG. 9 ). The software modeldata may be comprised within an ad’s content map as later described oras separate data, and further comprise how-to-purchase or buy-it-nowinformation.

At step 423 the content of the ads chosen for the ad pool are preferablydownloaded to cache or buffer space on the member’s local device ordevices 432, forming an ad buffer pool 424. Examples of local devicescomprise mobile phones, desktop and laptop computers, TV’s, radios,gaming consoles, watches and wearable devices, digital clothing, humanbody implants such as bonebuds for audio and eyeball display implants,virtual reality (VR) glasses, and heads-up display technology such aseye glasses and contact lenses, visors, clear handheld screens andwindshield heads-up displays.

At step 443 if permitted per the member’s profile settings, elements ofeach ad are identified for personalization and placeholders or targetareas replaced with member-specific text, objects or content. Forexample, a cat-food ad might have a background image replaced with animage of the member’s cat taken from their personal photo library, orthe color of cars in an ad are changed to the member’s favorite carcolor. Text and voice-overs can refer to information about the memberspecifically, for example a medical condition. Since the personalizationtakes place preferably in relation to the private ad buffer pool, theadvertiser preferably has no control or access to the personalizedinformation. The personalization may further effect the ad pool links437 with appropriate privacy protections. No limitation is implied aboutwhere the ad personalization takes place prior to ad exposure, forexample, step 443 may be performed after step 424 just prior to thedisplay of an ad on a local device and therefore be appropriate for thetime of day. Another aspect of this disclosure is providing for anincrease in ad exposure payment for personalized ads.

The ad buffer pool 424 is preferably refreshed using background networkand computational processes continuously. Links to the ad specs andcontent in the ad pool are simultaneously maintained on the Mafflenetwork at step 437. The ad pool links at 437 are made available on theinternet network 438 for populating for example ad containers onMaffle-friendly web sites being browsed by the member, in particularshould ad content not have been downloaded to the ad buffer pool. Adpool links 437 are preferably encrypted on the network 438 for memberprivacy.

The ad buffer pool 424 by be further organized by ads that areprioritized to play for example when watching a certain cable network,preferably upon the consent and compensation of the member.

Profile Simulacra IV

Now, the disclosure of an ecosystem comprised of evolvable simulacra(FIG. 42 ) with immediate usefulness for matching ads to consumers whowant to see them and to whom the advertiser wants to advertise,facilitates entire new realms of embodiments some of which are herebydiscussed below.

A heretofore unforeseen aspect of the disclosure is the provisioning ofperpetual simulacra that may be interacted with whether the modeledmember is alive or deceased. One aspect of the disclosure is thereforeextracting value from the growing number of simulacra of deceasedmembers. Over time, and given the inevitability of death, the potentialof billions of simulacra of deceased members is a virtual certainty. Oneaspect of the disclosure is the profit model of charging for the costsof maintaining and providing interfaces to deceased simulacra. Such aprofit model alternatively can comprise low or negative earnings throughthe initial period of ecosystem growth until a large enough populationof deceased simulacra arise over time. The disclosure comprises chargesor value trades in any form to family, friends, estates, governments andinstitutions in exchange for keeping the simulacra of the deceased“alive”. Another aspect of the disclosure, is facilitating a member to“absorb” a deceased member into their account and profile in the form ofa parent, child, relative, friend or “ancestor”. Another aspect ischarging an amount for such absorption, comprising a one-time orperpetual payment in any form. Another aspect is donating a portion ofsuch charges to a charitable cause. Another aspect is maintainingdeceased simulacra as an incentive to participate in the encompassingecosystem.

Another aspect of the disclosure applies to any social media ecosystemand interface, comprising transferring the information and final stateof a deceased member’s account in the social media ecosystem to anothermember in the social media ecosystem, in the form of a parent, child,relative, friend or ancestor, and optionally further comprising the stepof charging a one-time or recurring fee for providing access to thecontents of the deceased’s account for any purpose. A further aspect ofthe disclosure is providing a question-and-answer interface to theaccount of the deceased, comprising answers from the deceased thatcomprise information about the deceased, such information comprisingtext, numbers, images, videos and audio recordings. The questioningaspect is further described in FIG. 45 (more details later in thedisclosure), but without the capacity for the corporeal original of thesimulacrum to approve the answer per step 901, the original sadly beingdead and therefore unable to operate an interface device. Therefore, theliving account administrator assumes responsibility for steps 900 and901 in FIG. 45 .

Another aspect of the disclosure is creating a post-mortem simulacrum ofa deceased person comprising using text, audio, images and video,historical data and recollections from living persons familiar with thedeceased, that comprises an interface for the simulacrum to answerquestions.

Simulacra Private Mind Melding

FIG. 44 is a diagram of simulacra privately exchanging information fordating, negotiating, problem solving or other purposes.

A heretofore unforeseen aspect of this disclosure is the computationallyprivate interaction of two or more simulacra delegated a sharedobjective whereby the information exchanged between the simulacra isundetectable, unreadable, unrecordable and unrecoverable, furthercomprising a result related to the objective.

This aspect of the disclosure is potentially world-changing because itfacilitates positive exchanges between humans to achieve sharedobjectives in a manner impossible between corporeal humans because oftheir inability to forget and cognitive weaknesses such as irrationalfear, defaulting to distrust, the compulsion to gamble, and the cravingto defeat opponents.

Imagine a business negotiation where two parties agree to a mind-meldunder the condition that both parties will retain no recollection of theexchange, only the final terms of an agreement. During the meld, theparties expose every atom of their life and knowledge; their deepestsecrets and fears; the intensity of every emotion; the most confidentialinformation about their business and goals, and the true bottom lineseach will accept as a result. The terms of the agreement will be to themaximum benefit of both parties because no secrets are withheld-no moneycan be left “on-the-table”. After the meld, only the resulting documentis retained. Both parties utterly forget everything that happened duringthe meld. This exact scenario may be obtained between the sanctionedemissaries of individual human beings by using the aspects of thisdisclosure. Imagine further that the parties are the simulacra ofgovernments in conflict and the political benefits that would bring.

Another wondrous example is in finding a compatible mate. For example awoman looking for a partner tasks her simulacrum with mind-meldingindividually to the tens of thousands of simulacra of availablebachelors. The emissary of the woman and each man safely divulge everypossibly embarrassing fact and desire to each other and compareintellectual traits and the deepest emotional needs and abilities togive until the best match is found. Two compatible simulacra can share amerging beyond anything possible between corporeal humans, the beautybeing that they can at least attempt to describe what that is like.

Also now imagine hundreds, thousands or millions of like-mindedsimulacra entering a mind-meld in order to solve a problem, create awork of art or a new kind of experience that can enlighten and inspirecorporeal humans.

A lot has been said about the potential evils of artificialintelligence, but this disclosure describes a way in which under thecontrol of a disciplined organization, the best traits of individualhumans can dictate the behavior of such intelligence such that itbehaves as a good person with an array of expanded powers.

An aspect of this disclosure is the inhibition of evil and maliciousacts by a simulacrum by computational limitations placed within apossessable generic Al, such that an evil profile possessing a genericAI will not make the generic AI evil.

This brings up the urgency for a disciplined organization to arise asthe authority over the power of popular, possessable artificialintelligences.The danger is not in an autonomous AI doing evil deeds,but in a rich person or corrupt politician who controls a super powerfulAI ordering it to do evil. Therefore, the disciplined organization mustalways have the most powerful AI’s in order to out-compute or at leastanticipate evil, and preferably the most powerful AI’s are timesharedwith all profiles so that such power is equally distributed.

Referring now to FIG. 44 at step 865 a match finding or conference isstarted. At step 866 the objectives of the match or conference aredetermined and suitable instructions provided to the the simulacra. Atstep 867 the simulacrum 875 is dispatched to look for a match.

The MEMBER column on the left depicts processes under the control of themember, and the MAFFLE column are processes under the control of Maffle.

At step 869 coarse filtered members are queued for conferencing by age,gender, geographical location and the like. At 870 the next member inthe queue is loaded. At step 871 the mutual terms and objective for theoutput are set. At step 872 the private conference is initiated.

At 876 a server comprising a virtual machine running an operating system880 containerizes 881 the simulacra of the conferencing parties 882, 883and 884. Each simulacrum may be inside its own separate container. Eachprofile 882, 883 and 884 independently possesses a generic AI 877, 878and 879. The simulacra interact within the container(s) 881 to meet theprogrammed objective 866.

Since the simulacra preferably comprise every quantifiable fact andpersonality aspect of their respective members, a deep exchange canoccur, maximizing the benefits to each party or uncovering the mostmeaningful compatibilities between prospective mates.

The information exchanged between the simulacra is preferably encrypted,unmeasurable and unrecordable by any process, such that when a resulthas been determined by the conference participants, the result only isoutput and any evidence or information generated or exchanged inside theconference is permanently erased.

At 885 example comparison filters and algorithms computationallyevaluate facts and aspects of the parties to determine basiccompatibility. Such aspects as personal facts and ancestry 886, skills887, curiosity 888 and other aspects without limitations 889.

At 873 if the match is poor, the next member is loaded 870, terms set871, and a new conference initiated 872. If the match is good the memberis notified 874 and receives the results for further action 868.

FIG. 44 includes steps for match finding. Conferencing does not requirethe filtered queue 869, loading 870 and match determination 873 steps,and furthermore comprises an unlimited number of simulacra.

Similar steps may be used to find friends and simulacra with sharedinterests of any kind. No limitation is implied about matching orconference objectives or number of participants.

Simulacra Questioning Interface

FIG. 45 is a diagram of requesting information, taking a poll or askingquestions of simulacra.

A population of member simulacra will create a marketplace forsoliciting answers of all kinds, such as facts and information, productdesires and tastes, opinion polls and the like.

An aspect of this disclosure is requiring payment to a member for askingquestions of the member’s simulacrum. Another aspect of this disclosureis configuring a profile such that some answers are providedautomatically by a simulacrum and payment to a member for theirsimulacrum providing such answers is collected automatically.

The aspect described applies equally for conventional databaserepresentations of the member’s data without the provision for asimulacrum and is not intended to be limiting.

The MEMBER column on the left depicts processes under the control of themember, the MAFFLE column are processes under the control of Maffle, andthe QUESTIONER column under control of the questioner.

At step 900 the member sets the terms and conditions for answeringquestions and disclosing facts, information or aspects about the member.Such settings comprise the nature of questions that may be answeredautomatically and for what minimum payment amount. Questions notapproved for automatic answer may be asked by the questioner, butrequire manually approval by the member at step 901, and preferably apayment for the effort regardless of approval.

At step 908 the questioner maintains a profile with Maffle and a balance909 similar to that described in FIG. 12 , Currency Exchange and AdAuthors Buying Maffles. At step 910 the questioner submits a question toMaffle and specifies a target group of members and conditions. Forexample, the total budget allotted for the question, a payout matrixbased on member credentials and purchase history, the demographics ofthe members and the like.

At step 907 Maffle receives the question and manages currency transfersand payments to members, subtracting such compensation from thequestioner at 909.

At step 904 Maffle computes which members match and accept thequestioner’s conditions per each member’s answer settings 900, andsubmits the query to those member’s simulacra 903 at step 905. At step901 if the answer is computed to be provided automatically, it isprovided at step 906 and the member’s balance automatically increased atstep 902 out of the balance of the questioner. Since the simulacracomprise the facts, aspects and desires of the members, many questionsmay be answered without the involvement of the member depending on theiranswer settings 900.

If the answer is computed to require a manual authorization at step 901,the member is alerted that a question requires a response. The membermay approve a response determined by their simulacrum, enter a responseor decline to respond and preferably collect payment at 902 regardlessof the response, such payment preferably being variable depending on theresponse. For example, a payment is made simply to ask a question of themember, and an additional payment is offered if the member agrees toprovide an answer.

At step 906 the responses are collected and optionally anonymized basedon the conditions set by the questioner and permissions granted by themember manually or per their answer settings 900. The collectedresponses are provided to the questioner at step 911.

An aspect of this disclosure is estimating the payment charged to aquestioner based on the computational resources required to ask aquestion to a body of members.

An aspect of this disclosure is providing credit reporting functions tocreditors using simulacra and blockchain-style verification of privateinformation. For example, a member makes a mortgage payment, and thebank has a member account with Maffle and automatically transmitspayment information to Maffle, for example similar to step 625 in FIG.16 . Maffle provides the payment information to the member which updatesthe exposed payment ledger within the private control of the member(whereby the member can privately view the transactions), and creates apreferably hashed record of the transaction in the member’s blockchainthat preferably does not comprise the data itself, but can be used toconfirm the details of the transactions to any party that is providedthe details of the transaction by the member, for example similar tostep 618 in FIG. 16 .

Now, should the member wish to obtain a loan from a creditor and thecreditor wishes to confirm the credit rating of the member, the creditorsubmits a query to the individual member similar to step 910. The memberprovides confidential access to the creditor to a portion of themember’s transaction history. Maffle then facilitates computing apreferably hashed version of the exposed transaction history which canbe compared against the member’s blockchain to confirm the veracity ofthe exposed transactions. One skilled in the art will recognize thevarious ways the blockchain (or forward-only encrypted ledger, chain ofhashed data) can be compartmentalized such that subcategories oftransactions may be separately shared with third parties and verified.Alternatively, a separate blockchain for each category of transactionscan accumulate, for example, mortgage payments and car payments separatefrom product purchase history, etc. No limitation is implied over thedetails of the member’s transaction history ledger, such as whetherverification is distributed or not, the nature of encryption or hashingof transaction information and where it occurs, and where thecomputation is performed that validates information chosen to bedisclosed by the member.

An aspect of this disclosure is providing an interface to utilitycompanies to manipulate the appliances of anonymized member householdsor obtain usage information, whereby the members are anonymously paid bythe utility in exchange for allowing such manipulation or access toinformation under specified conditions. For example, using FIG. 45 as asimilar template, the member’s households comprise appliances and toolseach with a network interface popularly described as the Internet OfThings (IOT). Maffle provides a common anonymizing interface for the IOTto protect the privacy of the members, such interface for example beingbuilt into a Maffle TV, the TV already comprising various short rangenetworking hardware and in communication with Maffle.

Maffle may then present to a utility member groups in the form ofneighborhoods or regions such that the utility pays members to cycle forexample their air conditioners on a hot day without the members havingto grant network access to their household or divulge anything abouttheir personal activities. Another example is payment to members forallowing access to certain anonymized information about the patterns ofusage of their IOT, similar to the sequence described above for FIG. 45, steps 900 through 911.

Maffle for example could provide either hardware componentry or aspecification for short-range communication with the Maffle TV, whichthen provides the IOT interface for commercial use, the benefit beingthat the IOT devices are not themselves taking up wasteful bandwidth onthe internet, nor an IP address, nor are they vulnerable to maliciousattack.

Tasking a Simulacrum

FIG. 46 is a diagram of issuing commands to a simulacrum and interveningwith a human presence testing requirement.

A simulacrum can be delegated to handle many tasks on behalf of amember, such as approaching sales people electronically, asking serviceand technical support questions, booking and scheduling, searching forinformation, accessing content, media or data, etc. Ultimately,simulacrums with a mechanical body can perform physical tasks for amember such as cleaning, retrieving and putting away objects, or runningerrands by operating a vehicle. A simulacrum may further comprise beingitself a vehicle. More than one simulacrum of a member may be inoperation at a time, or a simulacrum may take on differing formsvirtually or physically at different times to suit the desires of themember.

Once a member has been modeled for AI possession in their profile, theprofile may be utilized, transported between or duplicated on variousdevices and in varying degrees of intelligence.

A simulacrum delegated for a task can pause and send a query to itsowning member when it encounters a situation that only the member cananswer.

At step 920 a task is described and initiated by a voice command, astring of text physically written or entered into a device, a bodygesture, a thought pattern, an eye movement or a physiologicalmeasurement. The task may be triggered automatically at a scheduled timeunder prescribed conditions. The simulacrum 925 is provisioned bypossessing a generic AI and initiates the task. At step 926 thesimulacrum 925 interacts with a task and knowledge network, preferablythe Maffle ecosystem in combination with a worldwide network. At step921, if the task can be completed without human intervention, the taskis completed autonomously, and returns a result if necessary orrequested by an audio, text, visual, physiological or other method.

At step 921 if the task requires the intervention of a human, an alertis provided to the member at step 922 that an action is required. Atstep 923 the member provides the necessary action, such as providinginformation not available in their profile either by omission or forsecurity purposes, interpreting an image such as a distorted textstring, supplying a fingerprint, a retina scan, a visible or IR image, avocalization or a physiological measurement.

At 925, the simulacrum resumes the task and repeats step 921 until thetask is complete at step 924.

Exploring Ads Part I

FIG. 6 is a flow chart of exposure to and exploring of Maffle-curatedads, comprising technology, materials, locations and activities. At step445, a suite of software and hardware endeavors to prevent the unwantedexposure of any form of brand or advertisement for which the member willreceive no compensation.

At step 447, incoming network bits undergo deep packet inspectionlooking for links, images, data of ads, or any unwanted network data,and are subsequently inhibited from display or communication. At step448, preferably a Maffle-configured hardware router or firewall isremotely updated by Maffle with blacklists and whitelists flagging datafor passing or inhibiting.

Blocking Ads

At step 449 and door 22 at FIG. 7 , we emerge at step 520. FIG. 7 is aflow chart of blocking unwanted ads on a local device or network. Atstep 521, individual images are analyzed for ads and brands, or entireweb pages are pre-rendered and analyzed at step 522 before display. Suchimages may comprise having an ad or brand that is embedded in the imagelocated, sized and targeted for superimposition or blurring to make thead or brand unrecognizable, while displaying the remainder of the image.Ads or brands are blocked or inhibited per blacklists or wildcardstrings at step 523 prior to display to the member.

At step 524, Maffle computers spider the internet and maintain data onany number of websites comprising information on ads, brand use andlayouts preferably for devices of different formats and aspect ratios.Such data preferably comprises not storing or transmitting anyintellectual property. Such information may be uploaded to memberdevices to assist with blocking ads and brands on spidered sites themember is visiting. At step 525, site URL’s a member is visiting areconfidentially and automatically uploaded to Maffle in real time. Mafflecomputers render and analyze web pages preferably simultaneous to membervisits, uploaded blocking information just prior to page loading on themember’s devices. Since Maffle’s computers are preferably faster both inconnectivity and processing speed, page analysis for blocking happenspreferably transparently for the member. At step 526 the member deviceuses Maffle network data to block or mask ads and brands and optionallyassist with page formatting.

Exploring Ads Part II

Another aspect of this disclosure is maintaining boycott pools ofadvertisers, brands and companies that maliciously attempt to expose adsor brands to Maffle members without compensation, henceforth referred toas MOONING, as an incentive to work in cooperation with Maffle and hermembers. Companies that moon members ad funds to a debit account linkedto the company that should the company ever become Maffle-friendly, mustbe repaid in full. An aspect of this disclosure is computing a nominalexposure fee for ads not yet registered within the Maffle ecosystem andcrediting Maffle members for all exposures, such credits to be paid uponthe advertiser or company joining the Maffle ecosystem.

A further aspect of this disclosure is a “Moon Hunter” game for members,such that ads and brand marks from the companies in the boycott pool areput on alert for special incentives and rewards to members for flaggingand blocking such ads and brand marks when they moon members.

Another aspect of this disclosure is the blocking from shopping sitesthe products and services produced by the boycotted companies andadvertisers. For example, at step 453 as a member browses internetstores, the blocking technology described in FIGS. 6 and 7 inhibits anydata facilitating the purchase of any content, good or service of aboycotted company, i.e., the company’s products simply never appear on ashopping site to purchase. Moon hunting may also comprise a mobiledevice photo of a sign or billboard.

Another aspect of this disclosure are channels of curated boycottingpools supporting various causes shown at step 442 in FIG. 4 . A memberjoins a CAUSE CHANNEL, and automatically and for example, all ads,brands and products from the companies, entities or governments in theboycotting pool of that channel never appear to them within the Maffleecosystem, so they can never accidentally buy a product from a companywho behaves in a way in which they do not approve, such boycottingcomprising optionally being toggled on and off. Ads for boycottedcompanies never appear to the member, even if they would have beenotherwise added to the member’s ad pool by the matching engines at steps422 and 436 in FIG. 4 , the boycott channel selections being an input tothe matching engines or a filter upon the outputs.

The cause channels at step 422 further comprise companies whose productsthe member wishes to prioritize over other companies within that productcategory. Such prioritized companies then appear more often or in betterpositions wherever possible throughout the Maffle ecosystem. Channelsmay comprise both boycotted entities and supported entities. Theboycotted or supported content and information is without limit,comprising text, images, videos, programs, audio, etc. One example ofboycotted content would be a member choosing to boycott fake news. TheMaffle ecosystem would then endeavor to prevent all fake news fromreaching the member. This is possible because content is mapped byMaffle prior to exposure to the member. See FIG. 23 described later indetail. Curated channels are edited by Maffle or by any individual orentity authorized by Maffle, such as a charity or non-profitorganization, but no limitation as to how curated channels are edited isimplied.

At step 450 and door 24 we return to FIG. 6 . At step 446, audioanalysis identifies ads in audio streams using speech recognition of keywords, machine recognition of the elements of advertisements comprisinglevel and compression changes, vocal or musical cadence, and timing ofoccurrence of the elements, fingerprint matching of any combination ofinflection points, frequency combinations or level changes or spectralanalysis, to a database of fingerprints, or timing of the placement ofads embedded in a parallel data stream in any format along with thecontent, or in a network stream or file uploaded in relation to thecontent. Such audio ads are muted or superimposed with Maffle curatedads or content or content from the member’s library. Maffle curated adsare preferably accompanied with an audio tone or clip indicating paymentreceived by the member from the advertiser, or the credit appearselsewhere to the member, for example on a mobile device. See FIG. 41describing more details about radio.

At step 452, the ad pool matched for the member per FIG. 4 , is madeavailable either as cached or buffered local data, or as links tonetwork data.

The following description of the remainder of FIG. 6 is an overview ofsome of the possible ways members may be exposed to ads and is notintended to be limiting. One skilled in the art will recognize theuniverse of all the ways a member may be exposed to an ad in thedigital, virtual, physical or audio realms. Additional detail about someof the exposure categories will be described in subsequent figures.

Browser

At 453 a Maffle web browser comprising a commercially available browserwith one or more Maffle-aware plug-ins, or Maffle-specific browserapplication programmed by Maffle with built-in Maffle functionality,provides Maffle services during the normal Internet and web activity ofthe member.

To be discussed later, members define the breadth of content they wishto see and that they wish to never see. Such desires extend to everymedium under Maffle’s influence, including browsers. For example, if themember wishes to never again see, listen to or hear about a Mr.Drinkwine-Blinkhorn (hereafter D-B), than all images or videoscontaining D-B will either be not displayed, or have D-B blurred ormasked within the image and his voice muted or replaced with otheraudio. Text referring to D-B may have selectable levels of inhibition,such as blocking the entire article, blocking specific sentencesreferring to D-B, or blocking individual unwanted words or the name D-B.

Members may optionally choose to have artistic content placed incontainers, which may be free to the member. Cartoons, artistic photos,paintings, images, photos of sculpture, anything decorative. Clicking onsuch items provides more info, may reward the artist with maffles(default or chosen amounts). An “inappropriate” button charges theadvertiser for mis-categorizing art/decoration as advertisement or ifthe content is otherwise offensive under the member’s profile choices.

At step 454, a Maffle-friendly internet store preferably presents onlythe goods and services specified by the visiting member’s profile atstep 455, and only advertisements for such products. Products preferablyare paid for with Maffles, and ad exposure credits accumulate during thevisit to be applied toward a purchase. Within the site, the member maybrowse all the ads from various manufactures for a product within aspecific category. For example, when the member visits the refrigeratorsection, they are offered to browse, as a group, ads in the form ofsales pitches from each manufacturer of a refrigerator for sale. Theyare compensated for looking at each sales pitch or ad and offeredvarious incentives. When they choose a refrigerator, they collect thevarious incentives. The member may collect a further incentive forsharing their purchase choice with one or more of the refrigeratormanufacturers, and collect even more Maffles for answering marketingquestions to help refine the products. Maffle preferably anonymizes theanswers.

Since the refrigerator ads in the member’s ad pool have beenconfidentially buffered and determined in advance, the ads can beconfidentially presented to the member via containers in the internetstore without disclosing to the store which ads are being offered.Similarly, the entire store may be filtered at the browser or localdevice so that the store can’t detect which products are being mutedfrom display to the member. Another aspect of this disclosure is havingan internet shopping site served from Maffle itself, so that memberprivacy is strictly maintained.

At step 456 a merchant preferably registers their product site withMaffle, so that automatically upon visiting by a member, ads in thatproduct category are activated/buffered/linked for display until aproduct in that category has been purchased. See steps 612 and 613 inFIG. 16 .

Auction and Classified Ads

At step 489 Maffles may be exchanged between members preferably withouttransaction fees for exchanging goods and services on an auction andclassified ad web site.

Email

At step 458 members may choose to display ads while emailing andtexting. At step 490, the member’s simulacrum is activated toautomatically respond in the stead of the member. As discussedpreviously, a deceased member can continue to email and textindefinitely via their orphaned simulacrum.

Print Targets

At step 459 and also referring to FIG. 11 , Maffle targets 554 printedon physical media (also described in detail later per FIGS. 34, 35, 36,37, 38, 39 and others) are optically or electromagnetically readable andserve as containers for superimposing member profile-sanctionedinformation such as ads from the member’s ad pool. For example, themember may use a pair of heads-up eye glasses, contact lenses or opticalimplants with overlaid image display running a software applicationwhile reading the printed page. The camera built into the glassesprovides an image to the application. The application identifies theMaffle targets 554 and 555 and places ads from the ad pool over thelocations on the printed page, adjusting for obliquing angles, warp andscale. A payment medallion or notification is displayed to the member462.

Maffle targets may comprise unique fingerprints 555 to further narrowwhat is superimposed, for example an ad pool ad from a specific producerwho pays the member a high, pre-negotiated payment for showing theirparticular ad 462. The example at 555 uses a decorative concentric ringpattern with two variables per differential to define a uniquefingerprint, the offset distance from the pattern origin, and angle forthe direction of offset. The pattern features fixed maximum rates ofchange of offset and angle.

No limitation is implied about the unique pattern specification, and anaspect of this disclosure is using visually harmonious and appealingunique images as Maffle targets, such images comprising art,photography, graphics and people.

Another aspect of this disclosure is blocking unwanted printed ads,content and information using superimposition on the heads-up display ofa reading device, for example eye-glasses. For example, similar to step445, ads and brands visible on physically printed material may beoverlaid with ad pool content, or any alternative content the memberspecifies, such as family photos. Another example of viewingsuperimposed content or data is via a mobile device with a screen and acamera.

No limitation is implied about where the pattern-triggered informationis displayed, for example, the information may be displayed in a staticlocation in the corner of the display, in a separate window or onanother device.

At step 460, members may agree to disclose to publishers informationfrom their profile about which product categories and brands they areinterested in. Such information may then be used for bespoke printing ona member-by-member basis, comprising ad pool content merged with generalcontent. For example, a member receives a Sunday newspaper where all theprinted ads were chosen for them from the their own ad pool. In analternative embodiment, newspapers, brochures, catalogs and magazinesare printed for members of an ad channel or cause channel, rather thanon an individual member basis.

Because a member’s ad pool may be locally cached or buffered, adsuperimposition can be accomplished on a mobile device practicallyinstantaneously once a Maffle target has been optically recognized.

Examples of content and information that may be specified by the memberto be superimposed over targets or unwanted areas include but are notlimited to: product photos and 3D models, dating photos, art, familyphotos/videos, learning and education lessons, calendar reminders, videoconferencing, game characters and rewards, and puzzle clues. Theseexamples apply equally for appearance throughout the entire Maffleecosystem.

Ad Viewer App

At step 463 a Maffle application is provided for viewing and managingthe member’s ad pool. A member may prefer to ingest and get credit forad exposures by doing it in blocks of time, rather than distributedamong their normal activities. One aspect of this disclosure isproviding an application for sequentially viewing and collecting creditfor ads from an ad pool. Another aspect of this disclosure is providingfor the purchase of the advertised product from within the sameapplication preferably comprising paying with Maffles 466. The membermay reject, rate and manage their ad pool from within the application,and enjoy the ad pool like reading a well-designed catalog or brochure464. The application 463 may further allow the member to modify theirprofile to improve the nature of the ad pool.

Inside Other Apps

At step 467 applications by developers other than Maffle may enabletheir applications to display member-specified information, informationfrom the ad pool, or interact with their simulacrum. An aspect of thisdisclosure is providing an interface to developers to interact with thesimulacra of Maffle members from inside an application.

Social Media

At step 468 Maffle members interact with each other individually or inself-selected groups. The social network is accessed via a browser or anapplication on any applicable device. Communication from other membersmay be specified by a member for display anywhere within the Maffleecosystem, such as browser containers, television and radio commercialbreak time, or superimposed over unwanted material.

Containers may be optionally filled on occasion and per profile settingswith content from the member’s friends on their social network. Thenetwork is preferably the Maffle network, but can be provided by anoutside social network. Outside networks may pay Maffle to place theircontent in Maffle containers and incur further charges for clicks on thecontent. Preferably, outside networks are blocked from placing any adsof their own into Maffle containers.

For example, the member may choose to have messages from the friends oftheir choosing appear somewhere within their Maffle environment onceevery 30 minutes. One skilled in the art will recognize the array ofconfigurable options for determining which messages may appear.

An aspect of this disclosure is delegating all or some portion of socialinteraction to a member’s simulacrum. At step 490 another aspect of thisdisclosure is shown, providing a web interface or application interfaceso that unfamiliar entities may ask questions of a member’s simulacrumand receive a member-moderated robotic response 492. At step 491 anaspect of this disclosure is perpetuating the orphaned simulacra ofdeceased people comprising the simulacrum of the deceased having aquestion and answer interface.

Mobile Mob Motion

At step 469 and determined by the privacy settings of individualparticipant members, groups (i.e., MOBS) of Maffle members may allowtheir ad pools to be statistically analyzed as a collection, comprisingfinding a subset of all the ads in all the ad pools that are likely tobe of interest to the largest number of members in a group within ageographical region and of interest to the group as a whole and creatinga MOB AD POOL. Based on the individual member locations, which can bedetermined by GPS or other triangulation and shared peer-to-peer or overa network, a centroid geographical location of the group may be computed470. The mob ad pool may be further enhanced by added information to thead pool comprising activities, stores, people, infrastructure, traffic,entertainments and the like near the calculated centroid of the group470.

The mob ad pool is made available within the Maffle ecosystem to eachmember of the group. For example, a group of friends and relativesvisiting a city comprise a high percentage of vegans. Maffleconfidentially computes the high number of vegans based on the summationof the eating preferences of the group, and locates vegan restaurantsnear the moving centroid of the group. Maffle places information aboutthe restaurants into the mob ad pool, which can be seen by each memberof the group. Maffle alternatively sends an informational message viatext, email or application to one or more of the group members.

Movies

At step 472 movies with Maffle content maps as described later in FIG.23 and others, can superimpose, enhance or display information toindividual members based on their profile settings via heads-up devices,such as glasses or virtual reality headgear 473, contact lenses,implants or screens. A sophisticated example is a street scene, wherebythe content map indicates the moving coordinates in three dimensions ofa car passing by. An actual car may or may not be visible on therecorded media. Each member of the audience wearing a virtual realityheadset sees a different brand of car drive by depending on theirprofile settings, and collects payment in Maffles that they may reviewlater, being able to toggle off the display of the Maffle medallion.

Radio

At step 474 audio ads in the ad pool are traditionally interspersed withcontent as described in detail later per FIG. 41 , or at step 475,listened to using an audio ad playback application, such as per step463, or on a dedicated “infomercial” channel that plays only ad poolaudio ads, such ads comprise being played back from a locally bufferedstorage location or on a network.

Public Target

At step 476 and as later describe in FIG. 35 and others, Maffle targetsmay be displayed on a person. While celebrities may contract with Maffleor companies for compensation for wearing Maffle targets, individualsmay wear Maffle targets on their person and receive paymentautomatically each time their target is used as a display surface 478whether by another individual member out in public, or at a broadcastevent where the target is visible to recording devices, which is anotheraspect of this disclosure.

At step 479 a unique optical code is printed either in conjunction witha generic Maffle target, or as a unified target comprising a uniqueimage recognizable as a Maffle target and related to an individualMaffle member.

Another aspect of the disclosure is relating the GPS or locationcoordinates transmitted or otherwise recorded by the mobile device of amember to coordinates based on the geographical location of a camera,it’s direction of aim, field of view and focus depth, such that theindividual member can be identified 479. A further aspect of thedisclosure is additionally computationally recognizing a Maffle targeton the individual, and storing the information relating the ad exposuresmade to other member’s by the appearance of the Maffle target on theindividual. In this manner, the individual may be paid a percentage ofall credits paid in relation to the appearance of the Maffle target onthe individual.

The public target furthermore may be in the form of a sign or objectcarried by or mounted on the person or on their vehicle, or on or inrelation to their place of residence or business.

A further aspect of this disclosure is that if a member watching abroadcast or content event in which another member has a public Maffletarget, and the watching member and target member are socially known toeach other and have suitable privacy settings, information related tothe target member is displayed to the watching member. For example, amember named Matilda watching a Green Bay Packers football game ontelevision, will see an arrow pointing to her friend Elroy as the camerasweeps across Elroy in the crowd wearing a Maffle target (and facepainted green and gold), and a popup appears on the display with apersonal message from Elroy to Matilda saying “Beer after the game?”.

Another aspect of the disclosure is providing Maffle transponders 480 toindividuals that in conjunction with camera position and aim informationassist in computing the identity of the individual carrying thetransponder. Maffle content is displayed related to the individual, andcompensation is made for the various exposures to other members.

Billboards and Signs

At step 488 and as described later in FIG. 10 , a Maffle target on aphysical sign or billboard viewable in public displays ad pool contentor other information when viewed through a suitable device, such asheads-up glasses, transparent-screened mobile devices, the camera of amobile device and the like. The content displayed may be furtherfiltered using the geographical location of the member for exampleadvertising the products available in a nearby store.

Another aspect of this disclosure is that the billboard or sign targetmay itself be in the form of an advertisement with a unique design (animage learned and stored by a machine), such that the sign looksconventional when viewed with the naked eye, but is recognized byMaffle-enabled hardware and used for overlays/superimposition whenviewed with a suitable device.

Another aspect of this disclosure is for signs described above, memberscollect extra bonus payments from the advertiser of the physicallydisplayed sign content for NOT having the sign superimposed or overlaidby another device.

Search

At step 482 ad pool content is displayed when search terms relate to thecontent or key works of an item in the ad pool 483. Members mayautomatically add goods, services and content entered into the searchterms as items to include in their ad pool.

Games

At step 484 a game is made of finding ads or information in secretlocations only revealed using a device such as a mobile device withcamera or transparent screen with a heads-up display.

Maffle targets or containers are embedded inside of games so that Mafflecontent may be displayed while playing.

Maps

At step 486 map applications and GPS driving direction units relate thegeographic location of ad pool products, services and entertainments tothe region of the map being examined. Items of interest in the ad poolappear on the map, and related Maffle-aware stores 489 are indicated.

3D Virtual Worlds

Computer environments in both 2D and 3D may comprise Maffle content mapsas described later in FIG. 23 and others, and contain Maffle targets foroverlays and superimposition as described in FIG. 9 . Two and threedimensional models of products may be placed inside the virtualenvironment at predetermined locations, and members collect Maffles eachtime an ad pool product appears.

An aspect of this disclosure is a virtual shopping mall comprisingdisplays of goods, products, services and entertainments in the ad pooland as per the member’s profile settings. For example, a member enters athree dimensional room and products within their preferred profileproduct categories are displayed on the walls. The virtual shopping mallfurther comprises the ability to place items into a shopping cart forlater purchase.

Spending Credits

FIG. 13 is a flow chart of spending Maffles. The concept of Mafflevirtual currency is not intended to be limiting. One skilled in the artand upon examination and comprehension of this disclosure willunderstand all the options of accumulating and spending credits in bothgovernment-issued currencies or virtual currencies. None of the aspectsof this disclosure depend upon Maffle virtual currency or any other formof virtual currency to be put into practice, and may be implemented forexample using US dollars, Euros or any other currencies or legaltenders.

At step 60 spending is initiated and the member signs into the Maffleecosystem at step 62. The member purchases goods services or physicalmedia at step 64, which is further described later in FIG. 16 . At step66 on an example internet store, the member adds an item to a shoppingcart and checks out. The store accepts Maffles, which are transferredfrom the member to the store merchant at step 70 and subtracted from themember’s Maffle balance at step 80. If a preset minimum balance ofMaffles in the member’s account is reached 82, currency from, forexample, the member’s bank issued credit card or funds transfer fromtheir bank account is converted to Maffles and added to their balance80.

At step 68 the store notifies Maffle automatically or manually of thepurchase details, which update the purchase history and consumptioncredentials of the member at step 78, such history and credentials beingrecorded such that the member cannot falsify purchases, typically bystoring purchase records in parallel on Maffle computers and memberdevices, preferably in an encrypted form. Checksums and blockchains areexamples of ways to verify that files have not been tampered with.

At step 72 any bonuses or incentives queued for the purchase category orspecific product are banked to the member’s balance.

An example general description of a member automatically paying forconsuming content on a network now follows beginning at step 84.

At step 86 a Maffle-enabled network or content host (hereafter network)detects that a Maffle member is accessing content, for example bycommunication between a server-side service on the host and a browserplug-in or previously registered browser cookie, and optionally adjustsfor member profile preferences.

At step 88, the member having set autosubscribe options in their profile(as described further in FIG. 18 ), and the network’s negotiated chargesfalling within the acceptable terms per the option settings, the memberis transparently granted access to the content of the network. At step89 the member’s ad pool is accessed for integration with the networkcontent.

At step 90, the network provides its content along with containers orother information specifying locations for displaying Maffleinformation, such as ad exposures. The network optionally may setfilters limiting the Maffle displayed information, for example, afamily-friendly network may place restrictions on the products that maybe displayed with the network’s content so that all content displayed tothe member is family-friendly. The member may optionally set theirprofile to decline access to the network based on such restrictions.

At step 92 the member consumes the network content, and the networkcollects Maffles 94 either by payments from the member’s balance forad-free content, or by chronologically related payments made to themember for ad consumption and comprising diverting some portion thereofto the network per FIG. 14 described in detail later. At step 74 thenetwork periodically converts Maffles to currency per FIG. 12 .

At step 96 the member accesses content directly from individual contentproducers or from aggregating broadcasters. A digital newspaper site isdescribed at step 100 and FIG. 18 , a streaming service at 98 and FIG.17 , and television or video services at step 102 and FIG. 21 .

Buying Goods & Services

FIG. 16 is a flow chart of a member buying goods and services, and is afurther embodiment of spending as described previously in FIG. 13 .

At step 621 a merchant profile registered with Maffle providesinteraction with the Maffle ecosystem and the merchant hosts aMaffle-friendly store on the internet at step 622, or alternativelyprovides a physical store the member may visit in person and transferMaffles electronically using a point-of-sale device such as a cardreader, optical scanner, product transponders or short range wirelessprotocol such as Bluetooth combined with a mobile device. One skilled inthe art will recognize the many ways the member’s balance of virtualcurrency may be transferred in person to a merchant at a physical store.

At step 608 the member browses the store, and optionally per profilesettings, automatically triggers the exposure of ads for productcategories or brands featured on the store at step 612. At step 609 themember purchases an item from the merchant, which subtracts Maffles fromthe member’s account at 616 and 614 and adds them to the merchantaccount at 617 and 615. Alternatively, the transaction is conductedusing government-issued currency. At step 623 the sale is confirmed bythe merchant and the product distributed at 624 to be received by themember at step 610. At step 613, ads related to the product purchase areoptionally disabled per member profile settings.

At step 625 the merchant store preferably automatically notifies Maffleof the purchase details, such as product SKU, price and quantity. Inthis example, Maffle updates at step 618, the blockchain purchasehistory of the member, and updates the member’s profile 607 purchasehistory 606 and credentials to match. Preferably the purchase historyand credentials are encrypted and confidential to the member butimpossible to tamper with.

Making a purchase optionally causes a recalculation of the ad pool perFIG. 4 , so that an increase in the member’s purchase history andcredentials/score/rating might be reflected in higher ad exposurecompensation.

At step 626 the merchant preferably periodically requests a transfer ofMaffles to currency, which happens at step 619 to a bank or other agencyoutside of Maffle at step 620. At step 611, the member preferablyperiodically converts Maffles to currency for transfer to an outsideagency.

Purchasing Via Ad Consumption

FIG. 14 is a flow chart of purchasing content via ad consumption. Thisdescription for FIG. 14 more generally applies to content chosen for aone-time consumption with a specific cost, such as a motion picture.FIG. 15 as described later is related but refers to a typical televisionwatching experience switching between multiple channels of ongoingcontent.

At step 567 the member enters the Maffle ecosystem and evaluates contentto consume 568. As described in detail later in FIGS. 23, 24, 25 andothers, the member preferably uses their simulacrum with content maps toassist in choosing content to consume, such choices comprise beinggenerated automatically based on the member’s profile settings comparedagainst the universe of available content. Any conventional way ofchoosing content is also available, such as television guides bothdigital and printed, movie information sites and the like.

At step 577 a producer with a Maffle account and profile publishescontent preferably along with a content map 578 as describe in FIG. 23and elsewhere.

At steps 568 and 575, the member preferably sees in advance the cost ofconsuming the content, and the number and duration of ads required toconsume the content without cost to the member. Alternatively, the adsneeded to pay for the content are computed after the choice of contentis made, and options are available such as putting limits on the totalad time, whether or not the member has to make up the difference incontent cost out of their existing balance. An alternative option isspecifying that the total payments earned from the ad exposure exceedsthe cost of the content. Another alternative is the option to pay aprorated amount depending on how much of the content was consumed, forexample, if the member isn’t enjoying a movie, they may turn it off andpay for only the portion they had to endure. A further example is forthe member to enjoy the content ad-free, in which case the cost of thecontent is taken in full from the existing balance of the member.

One skilled in the art upon reading this disclosure will recognize themany options possible for determining which and how the content will beconsumed.

At step 575 after the choice of content is made, the exact parameters ofads required is determined and some or all of an ad pool is buffered orlinked for preferably chronological consumption at step 576. At step 569the member begins consuming the content and after a portion, an ad isexposed from the ad pool at step 570. Until the content is fully paidfor, the negotiated ad exposure payment to the member is transferredpreferably in full to the content producer at step 571.

At step 563 the credit for the ad collected from the ad author 562 isdivided appropriately among the member, the producer of the content 564and optionally the owner of additional intellectual property within thecontent at step 579.

For example, a movie producer has negotiated that a music publishershould be paid twenty-five cents every time a song licensed to thepublisher plays during the movie instead of paying for the music rightsoutright, such a fee preferably being automatically subtracted from thetotal amount collected from the member for watching the movie.

Another example is a painting that appears in a scene causing a paymentto the artist. A further example is a musician who wants to learn a songplaying in a movie turns on the guitar tablature for the song thatdisplays at the bottom of the screen, which triggers an additionalpayment to the music publisher.

As discussed in FIG. 23 later, the content map comprises all licensinginformation so payments may be made preferably in real time to anyentity with an account in the Maffle ecosystem including publishers,musicians, artist and the like as shown at steps 560 and 561. The memberpreferably sees in advance the total obligation of all such paymentsubdivisions because they are comprised within the browsable contentmap.

At step 561 the member balance is increased by all or a portion of thead credit 563 depending on the member profile settings determiningpayout percentages and whether the cost of the content has been paid infull.

Another aspect of this disclosure is that the content map comprisescommercial entities, i.e. product placements, for which the member ispaid upon exposure during the course of consuming the content. Anotheraspect of this disclosure is that only products from the ad pool appearin the content, but in a natural manner comprising integration with thecontent. Another aspect of this disclosure is fees charged to companieswho abuse product placement within content.

At step 572 the member consumes an ad-free version of the content andpays for it from the balance in their Maffle account 561 at step 573.The content cost is transferred from the member at 565 to the producer564 and other IP owners 579 as described above.

For each payment or preferably the total payments to each party for theentire content, the purchase history blockchain or other verifiablerecord is updated at steps 566 and 574.

Broadcast Stream Replacements

FIG. 15 is a timeline of broadcast stream replacements and paymentallocation. This description is in reference to a TV display withbroadcast channels arriving via an over-the-air antenna, cable network,or the internet, but the aspects of the disclosure described are notlimited to TV or any particular device, and no limitation is implied.Any source of broadcast channels, and any display, monitoring orplayback device can be used, for example a portable computer or mobilephone.

In the example that follows, a Maffle member is on the couch brandishinga remote control while watching television. The television can be tunedto at least four different sources of content or channels, Broadcast A,Broadcast B, Broadcast C, and content streamed over the internet underthe control of Maffle.

It is important to note and an aspect of this disclosure, that thevarious payments and collections described below happen transparentlywithout any efforts or interactions of the member, who simply chooseswhich channel to watch and when. All payment terms and negotiations aredetermined by the member’s profile and preferably simulacrum, which maybe adjusted by the member at any time.

In the timeline, time progresses from left to right. At the top of thetimeline, the Maffle network is streaming content maps for each of thefour channels, the content maps comprising detailed description andmetadata about what’s playing on each channel in real time, andpreferably for prerecorded broadcast content, what’s going to playduring the entire duration of the show. Content maps are described laterin detail in FIG. 23 and others.

The content map preferably comprises how much the show costs the memberto watch, such a cost preferably being variable and determined by thebroadcaster. The member may disable channels from display that chargemore than the member wishes to pay. In this example, the member hasaccepted the terms of each of the four channels and may switch freelybetween them. The member’s simulacrum preferably negotiates the cost andterms of the channels available to the member.

At this time in the example, the member is tuned into broadcast A.Broadcaster A accrues credits for the duration the member watches itschannel at 588, and during the commercial break 594, collects the adexposure payment made to the member by the ad author at 589. Preferablythe ad exposure payment is higher than the accrued cost of the show, sothe member both pays broadcaster A for the content, and banks additionalMaffles into their profile balance.

No limitation is implied about when or how the broadcaster is paid bythe member, such payment alternatively occurring before consuming thecontent or on a daily, weekly, monthly or other periodic basis or as asubscription or part of a channel bundle. For periodic or subscriptionchannels, the member simply collects the entire payment for each adexposure, using the balance to pay for channel subscriptions elsewherein the Maffle ecosystem.

At 593, the ad pool from which the displayed ad is taken (as indicatedby the crosshatched area after 593) is determined by the member,comprising differing preferences of individuals from the member’sfamily. Whoever is watching TV at the time, may set their personalMaffle profile to determine the ad pool, or choose from several adchannels tailored for the group watching together, such as a “his adchannel”, “her ad channel” or “family ad channel”.

After break 594, the member continues to watch broadcast A until thenext break at 590 where the member decides not to watch any ads. At 596,the member is shown that content is playing simultaneous to break 590 onboth broadcast B and broadcast C. Because of the content maps for thefour available channels, Maffle can inform the member of which otherchannels are playing content in many ways, such as an inset on the maindisplay, on a remote control or another device such as a mobilecomputer.

Another aspect of this disclosure is the member setting preferences toautomatically switch to another broadcast channel they desire that’s notin a commercial break when the broadcast channel they are watchingenters a commercial break. For example, the member may choose two showsto switch automatically between to avoid commercial breaks. Anotheraspect of this disclosure is setting options that determine theconditions to automatically switch channels. For example, the memberwishes to watch primarily broadcast A, so the channel is switched tobroadcast B only during commercials on broadcast A, switching back tobroadcast A as soon as that channel returns from a commercial break.

During the time period at 590, broadcaster B or C accrues credits whilethe member watches their respective channels. The member paysbroadcaster B or C from their Maffle balance immediately or asnegotiated and as described above.

At 591 nothing interests the member on the three broadcast channels, sothe member tunes into the Maffle network content channel at 595. Thecontent producer of the replacement content 595 is paid from themember’s Maffle balance for the time of content viewing 591.

At 592 the member decides to watch the “raw” broadcast channel A for abrief period of time to remind themselves of the pablum that made themjoin Maffle in the first place. No payments are made to broadcaster Abecause of the unsolicited ad exposures allowed to be displayed to themember.

Finally, some additional information about watching broadcast streams:another embodiment of this disclosure is for member content consumptionpayments to go directly to the producer of the content, rather than anaggregator, which is the ultimate preferred embodiment because iteliminates middlemen and provides a quality feedback loop such that badcontent earns little or no payment. The preferred embodiment comprisesseparate compensation to the network or broadcaster for providing thatpart of the total service, such that content producer payments do notpass through the financial trappings of such networks or broadcasters.

While the preferred embodiment of the disclosure comprises payments tothe broadcasters as described here for FIG. 15 , it should be recognizedthat at the time of this disclosure, hundreds of channels are availableover-the-air, on cable networks and on internet stations that may bewatched by a member without any further payments in addition to thenetwork access costs, in the case of over-the-air, free. As will bedescribed later in FIG. 21 and others, Maffle TV may be used by themember to collect ad exposure Maffles, while eliminating all theun-wanted ads arriving from these various uncurated channel sources. Itis contemplated that this situation will exist for some period of time,but great pressure will arise upon the broadcasters dependent onembedded ad revenue, who will turn to Maffle to receive payment insteadfor the added value created by providing (broadcasting in parallel ornetwork uploads) content maps with Maffle targets and in-contentpurchase opportunities. There will be a golden era of Maffle membershipwhere the members benefit greatly creating large incentives to join anduse Maffle.

Another aspect of this disclosure is Maffle inhibiting theMaffle-ecosystem integration of a broadcast channel in its raw form,should the broadcast channel join as a registered Maffle network. Forexample, if Broadcaster B is a Maffle business, but Broadcaster C isnot, the member is inhibited by all the devices under the control ofMaffle, from watching broadcast B in it’s raw form without compensationto broadcaster B. This serves as a powerful incentive for broadcastersto join Maffle. Broadcast C may be watched by the member at any timewithout further compensation to broadcaster C.

A preferred and related aspect of this disclosure is Maffle notifying anetwork or broadcaster that a commercial break was watched in its rawform by a Maffle member, such that the broadcaster may collect adrevenue from the advertiser who produced the ad, or notified by Mafflethat the member superimposed Maffle-curated content over the ad, suchthat the broadcaster does not collect revenue from the advertiser forthe unwatched ad. In this way, the member may still watch the broadcastfor free in its raw form, but pay for it when the member replaces thecommercial content. The advertiser benefits because they are not payingfor unwatched ads for example over-the-air.

Here is an example to illustrate how Maffle greatly reduces the totalnumber of ads while reaching the same or more people interested in thead’s product. Assuming a revenue-neutral model for cognitive simplicity,an advertiser both pays a broadcaster to play an ad during a commercialbreak, and additionally joins Maffle and publishes the same ad to theMaffle ecosystem. There, a member’s simulacrum puts the ad into amember’s ad pool because it determines mutual interest and paymentterms. In this example the broadcaster’s viewers include fifty percentMaffle members, and fifty percent non-members. In this example, noMaffle members watch the raw ad, the broadcaster is so notified, and theadvertiser pays for example, half of what it paid the broadcasterpreviously. If for example, one percent of the Maffle viewers have thead in their ad pool and it plays during the break, the advertiser canpay out to the one percent, fifty percent of the total they werepreviously paying to broadcast the raw ad without increasing theirbudget. The members in turn can pay that fifty percent back to thebroadcaster in return for consuming the channel content (summing andaveraging all ads and channels in the universe). The total number of adplays is one percent of the previous amount within the Maffle membergroup, and each one expressed an interest in the ad’s product inadvance. Assuming the same general product curiosity rate, one percentof the raw ad’s viewers had any interest in the ad, and ninety-ninepercent found it annoying and meaningless. The Maffle members werelearning a language, interacting with their friends or playing a gamewith the 99% reduction in ad time created by eliminating all the adsthey didn’t want to see.

The previous example is for illustration purposes only and not intendedto be limiting. One skilled in the art and upon reading andcomprehending this disclosure will understand the many additional waysMaffle may coordinate networks, broadcasters, advertisers and members.

Direct Streaming

FIG. 17 is a flow chart of watching streaming media. A step 98 in FIG.13 and door number 3, a member consumes content by streaming data froman internet host. At door number 3 in FIG. 17 at step 103 the memberselects the source of the content. For Maffle-aware, earn-as-you-gocontent at step 105, the member watches an ad from their ad pool priorto watching the content and earns Maffles as displayed by a Mafflemedallion. At step 107 the member watches the content and sees some orall of the just-earned Maffle credit go to pay the producer of thecontent. At step 109 should the ad credit exceed the cost of thecontent, the member banks the left over Maffles with a gratifying visualeffect and audio payout sound such as a bell clang. The member’s profilesettings pre-determine how much the member is willing to pay for suchcontent and whether or not they will watch content whereby the adexposure credit is less than the cost of the content. The contentproducer in turn, preferably sets the cost of watching their contentwhen they register the content with the Maffle ecosystem, such costpreferably being variable and negotiated prior to play with the profileof the watching member through conventional algorithms or preferablyrobotically.

At step 111 when accessing the content on a non-Maffle video aggregator,an ad from the ad pool is superimposed over the unsolicited ad thatplays prior to the desired content. Such unsolicited ad is recognized byMaffle technology by its registered fingerprint or other machinerecognition technology trained to identify advertisements. The audiochannel is likewise rerouted such that the superimposed Maffle ad isheard, not the underlying unwanted ad. A Maffle medallion displays thead exposure credit collected. At step 113 and upon termination of theunwanted ad, the content is watched. At 115, the member banks the entiread exposure credit. Alternatively, should the producer of the content beMaffle-registered and identifiable, for example because the content hasbeen fingerprinted and registered to the producer with a Maffle profile,the member may pay a tip to the producer should they especially enjoythe content.

At step 117 the member consumes content ad-free on a Maffle-aware site.Maffle transfers Maffles from the member balance to the site owner basedon the content watched per view, by second, or by a periodicsubscription. The member may auto-subscribe to the site based on anegotiation between the site profile and the member profile as describedin more detail in FIG. 18 for a digital newspaper site.

A Digital News Site

FIG. 18 is a flow chart of one possible configuration for aMaffle-friendly internet news site. Coming from FIG. 13 at step 100 anddoor number 5, the member enters the news site at step 120 and doornumber 5 on FIG. 18 .

While this disclosure preferably embodies an extensive Maffle network,an individual site owner may implement elements of this disclosure as astand-alone business operation. For example with a digital news site,visitors may subscribe to the site in a conventional manner and setvarious preferences for ad exposures similar to those described formember profiles previously and collect ad exposure payments that pay forthe subscription and more. No limitation is implied about whether theaspects of this disclosure are implemented on a site-by-site basis orwithin a broader Maffle ecosystem, and all such implementations havebeen contemplated.

At step 122 a server-side application determines that a Maffle memberhas accessed a page on the site, either via a browser plug-in, cookieexamination or any other computational method. If the visitor is not aMaffle member, the site is served conventionally at step 142 typicallycomprising unsolicited ads.

For Maffle members, at step 124 if the member is already a subscriber,the site is served at 128 optimized for the integration with ad poolcontent, such as empty containers comprising Maffle hooks or metadata,placeholders, or as a clean, ad-free site depending on the memberprofile settings.

If the member is not already a subscriber, at step 126 the site orMaffle computationally determines if the payment for the use of the siteas set in the site owner’s Maffle profile 152 is lower than the upperlimit set by the member at step 138 for automatic web site subscriptioncost. Additionally at step 138 and 140, the member may place limits onthe number and type of ads the newspaper site may stipulate must beexposed or may not be exposed to the member with the site content 154,and whether or not the newspaper site provides for monthly or yearlysubscriptions. No limitation is implied about the subscription rulesfilter settings or parameters that may be established by either party indetermining an automatic subscription.

Alternatively, the member may only want ad-free content, and sets anupper limit for the cost of newspaper site subscriptions at step 138,which is paid for automatically from the member’s Maffle balance.

Should the member’s profile and the site profile computationally or byrobot automatically negotiate agreeable subscription terms, the memberis automatically subscribed and is served the Maffle-friendly site perstep 128. If mutually agreeable terms cannot be negotiated, the membermanually can decide whether to accept or deny the subscription at step144, which causes either the conventional site to be served at step 142,or the Maffle-friendly version at step 128.

An aspect of this disclosure is that with suitable profile settings forboth parties, the automatic subscription happens transparently when themember visits the site which is served immediately to the member in it’sMaffle-friendly form.

At step 130 the site is paid by the ad exposures made to the memberwhile they consume the newspaper content until a periodic subscriptioncost has been reached. The member via Maffle medallions sees the adexposure credits and payments made to the newspaper site as they happen.The newspaper site may charge by time increment such as per second forvideo news content.

At step 146 when the periodic subscription cost has been reached and themember has set he appropriate toggle at steps 136 and 148, an ad-freeversion of the newspaper site is served at 150. Alternatively, themember may choose to continue with ad exposures per 148 and collect theentirety of ad exposure payments at step 156 until the next subscriptionperiod begins.

To provide additional information for making informed purchasingdecisions, Maffle may partner with review and ratings institutions andweb sites such as Consumer Reports. If a member follows an ad for anappliance that they have an interest in purchasing, along with the adappear links and ratings for that appliance. If the member wants to readthe reviews and ratings on Consumer Reports, maffles are paid to thatorganization automatically, preferably for an amount less than was paidto the member for clicking into the ad.

Similar rules of maximum monthly subscription amounts and such asapplied to other content providers apply to this methodology as well.

A Content Map

FIG. 23 is a timeline of one embodiment of a CONTENT MAP.

The content map comprises chronological, factual, descriptive,analytical, subjective and numerical information about another entity,such as a movie, video or television program, song or sound recording,live performance, video game, text in a book, magazine, newspaper ordigital newspaper, or still image. No limitation is implied about whatkind of entity for which a content map can be derived.

The content map is machine readable information comprising one or both achronological stream, and a static file, database or digital packet. Thecontent map comprises an infinite and variable number of informationcategories that are self-describing, comprising the format and type ofdata within each category. The content map can represent and store anyform of data, knowledge or information.

A complete content map can exist as a digital or data entity on acomputational device. The content map may be streamed in real-time overa network, and accessed in parallel to chronologically unfoldingcontent, such that information about the content is made available nearthe moment in time it occurs in the content.

The content map may be generated and added to in real-time as an eventhappens, for example while a live broadcast TV program plays on adisplay.

One skilled in the art will recognize the numerous data structurespossible to represent a content map in a machine readable form on acomputational device, and the form of related data bits in a networkstream.

The content map preferably comprises non-encrypted and encrypted regionsof information, encrypted regions only being accessible for authorizedpurposes as described later, for example when accessing intellectualproperty within the content map.

An aspect of this disclosure is using blockchains, or chains of hasheddata, permissioned or otherwise, to store and maintain content maps orportions thereof, such that certain information for example, terms ofuse regarding intellectual property and payment recipients are protectedfrom malicious modification.

FIG. 23 shows one example representation of a content map for anindividual television content channel and is not intended to belimiting. FIG. 23 shows various categories in a graphical manner, whichdoes not limit how the category data is stored by a machine.

The terminology used to describe the content map is not intended to belimiting and is arbitrary, for example, “categories” or “tracks” maycomprise “elements” with variable parameters that comprise in total thecategory or track, or the category or track may comprise only a singlevariable parameter of data. Furthermore, categories may comprise aninfinite number of hierarchical subcategories or elements, each with oneor more parameters.

At 698 a timecode track relates information and events in the contentmap to chronological time using conventional timecode, such asHH:MM:SS.SS. Breaks, ads and commercials in the program are identifiedin time as they occur.

Child Rating

At 690 the child rating of the program is established and varies withtime depending on the action and dialog. A Maffle member may set limitson the maximum child rating that may play for example on their TV whentheir children are present. Alternative, appropriate content such as catvideos, may be automatically substituted while the child rating isexceeded or the channel may be muted or blurred.

Subjective Qualities

At 691 various categories represent subjective qualities of the contentas experienced by humans or machines programmed to evaluate subjectivequalities, such as an artificial intelligence or simulacra. Suchsubjective categories include but are not limited to intensity 691,sexual content, violence, beauty 692, and funniness 693. An aspect ofthis disclosure is providing an iterative process for determiningsubjective qualities of content, such process comprising obtaining theinput from multiple people for each category in real-time as they areexposed to the content and combining their responses statistically, therefined results then used to improve the accuracy of the content map.

For example, a person provided with a hand-held fader may move the faderup or down depending on how much beauty they perceive to be comprisedwithin the content throughout the duration of the show.

More detail about human-supervised content map generation will bedescribed in FIG. 22 later.

Another aspect of this disclosure is providing an application for amobile device whereby the laughter of a member watching content iscaptured preferably by a microphone but otherwise biometrically andanalyzed for intensity using variables such as the volume in decibels,pitch and duration. Such variables are compared against a fingerprint ofthe laughter characteristics of the member such that a funniness ratingof the content stimulating the laughter be it television or radio, canbe set with a quantitative value, such as a number from zero to 100.Such funniness rating is transmitted to Maffle preferably confidentiallyand anonymously, and preferably in return for compensatory Maffles, andis combined with the responses of other members and used to create orimprove the accuracy of the funniness track or element in the program’scontent map.

Actors and People

At 694 the actors and people are identified in real-time as they appearand leave the program. For example, a member who is a big fan of aparticular actress might want their television to automatically switchchannels in order to see her whenever she happens to appear on anychannel with an accessible content map.

At 695 a breakout shows more detail about the kind of information thatmay be related to each actor. The on/off element records the onscreenpresence of the actor. A container that envelopes or defines thelocation of the actor on screen records their movements. The containershape and size is recorded and may change over time along with origin’sX, Y and Z coordinates of the container. Examples of container primitiveshapes are splines, polygons, circles, polygonal 3D surfaces andvolumes, and 3D prismatic solids. The container may be a 3D volume thatencloses the actor. An example use of such information is blurring out aperson for whom the Maffle member has no fondness. The member specifiesin their profile that they never want to ever again see the previouslymentioned and infamous Mr. Drinkwine-Blinkhorn. A Maffle-enabled devicemay then use the content map to blur out the area containing D-B. Theactor content map may further comprise a container for just the actor’sface, for example. Subjective qualities such as funniness are recordedfor the particular actor. An example use is for a member to search forclips featuring a favorite actor where the actor is being funny.

Another example of using actor information 695 is replacing the faces ofactors throughout a movie, for example Star Wars. The polygonal surfacesof each actor’s face is extracted and stored with the movie’s contentmap. The member defines a profile scheme whereby images of the faces ofthe member’s family are mapped to each of the main characters, such thatnephew Ryan’s face appears superimposed over Luke’s face whenever Lukeappears, and uncle Billy’s face appears over Darth Vader.

At 704 all the dialog spoken by the actor is optionally recorded. Sincethe dialog may comprise copyrighted material or intellectual property,the dialog may be encrypted such that the owner of the IP may controlits use. For example, the owner of the IP may set a cost to be charged amember for including the transcript of a movie in their search request.

An aspect of this disclosure is a content map comprising encryptedintellectual property whereby the ownership, rules of access andrecipients of access payments are also stored in the content map,whereby accessing the intellectual property automatically causes apayment to be made to the owner of the intellectual property. A furtheraspect of this disclosure is that such payments are variable andnegotiated in advance by the robots of the owner of the intellectualproperty and a perspective user of such property.

The child rating of the actions or speech of the actor may be recorded,such that an individual actor might be muted or blurred automaticallyshould their behavior exceed a child-rating threshold. Any number ofadditional elements may be included to capture information about anyactor.

Things, Animals, Places and Buildings

Returning to 694 things and objects are recorded as they appear, suchinformation comprising brands and models and product information withoutlimit, such as links to stores to purchase the item, buy-it-nowfeatures, and the coordinates of containers enveloping the locations ofsuch objects, including the 3D volumes containing them as shown at 706.The content map may comprise all the information required to substitutea virtual object in place of a default object within the scene. Thevirtual object may be comprised of for example, images or computergenerated imagery (CGI) in 2D or 3D, the definition for which may beincluded with the content map or stored in a different location forexample on a network. For example, the content map comprises the movingorigin and 3D volume of a car passing by on the street, along withforeground masking information such as actors standing in front of thecar in the form of alpha image data. A virtual version of any other carmay then be substituted in real-time inside the action of the program,such appearance comprising the member collecting Maffles from theadvertiser of the brand of replacement car, while a Maffle paymentmedallion momentarily appears and clinks into a piggy bank.

Additionally at 694, animals, places, and buildings are identified asthey appear chronologically and may optionally comprise locationcontainers and additional information about each entity, for exampleaddresses of buildings and construction details, or the species andthreatened status of animals.

Audio and Music

Elements of the audio content of the program include music, ambience,foley and dialog 703. A member may search for the sound of dog barks,for example, and be directed to those locations in a program or anynumber of programs. Per 704 described in relation to the actortrack/category, the actual dialog of the program in the form of text maybe encrypted intellectual property subject to additional terms foraccess in searches or display. The dialog track may be comprised of theclosed captioning or subtitle track of the program. An aspect of thisdisclosure is a content map comprising a dialog track, replacing aclosed captioning or subtitle track for broadcast, streamed ordownloaded content.

At 696 the subdivisions possible within the music category are shown,but are not intended to be limiting. All elements of the music in thecontent may be stored in the content map, including the artist, song,composer and publisher. At 701 the terms of the publishing for the musicare stored, including the percentage royalty divisions between theperforming artist, composer of the work and the publisher, and use ofthe master recording. Membership accounts of the artist, composer andpublisher in their respective performing rights organizations may bestored. An aspect of this disclosure is delegating the management andconfiguration of a music publishing track within a network-accessedcontent map to the publisher of the included music. Another aspect ofthis disclosure is the automatic payment of performance royalties to thevested parties of a published work of music automatically upon theplaying of the music during a program.

The implementation of the Maffle content map for the payout ofperformance royalties eliminates the need for a performing rightsorganization, because the payout can be made in Maffles to the variousparties individually and contemporaneously to the use of the music.

The producer of the content may negotiate payment terms with thepublisher of the music. For example, the publisher provides thepublishing and master recording rights to the producer without charge inexchange for collecting one-half of one Maffle per play of the content.The terms of this agreement may be recorded in the music or intellectualproperty categories in the content map, and an automatic payment ispreferably made to the publisher, artist and composer by Maffle eachtime the content is played.

Additionally at 696 the genre of the music and chronological occurrencesof profanity may be stored.

The instrumentation of the music and where each instruments plays duringthe song may be stored and at 705, the midi information comprisingindividual notes, durations and expressive elements may be stored.Tablature and musical notation may also be included, such informationcomprising intellectual property subject to encryption and costs ofaccess described further in this section below. For example, a memberwho plays guitar can turn on the tablature track for an additionalcharge and see the notes and fingering of the music playing in real timeon the display along with the content, or download the tablature for uselater.

Subjective qualities of the music may be recorded broadly described as“mood dimensions”, such as yearning, anger, and happiness and may varyover time. As previously described at 691, such subjective qualities canbe quantified by a sampling of people inputting real-time responses (ormeasured biometrically), or by machines or simulacra. Such mooddimensions provide for accurate searches and music recommendations. Forexample, if a member enjoys the feelings evoked by a certain song, theymay search the universe of songs with content maps that comprise similarfeelings, including the sequence of feelings. An aspect of thisdisclosure is producing a list of song recommendations based on matchingthe sequence of a variety of feelings from one song, to the sequence offeelings in a collection of other songs.

At 702 the lyrics of a song may be contained in the content map and maycomprise being intellectual property requiring terms for search oraccess as described below.

Camera Tracking

After 703, information about the cameras used to record the program isstored in a category. At 697 further details about the camera track areshown. In the example, a camera outfitted with positional encoders isused to photograph a scene for the program. As the camera moves throughspace, its XYZ coordinates are recorded, along with the pan, tilt androtation information. The focal length, field of view, focus plane,aspect ratio and any other technical parameter of the camera and it’sposition and direction of aim may be recorded in real-time and stored.Any number of cameras may be recorded and stored on individual tracks.

An example use of the camera track is as follows: a Maffle target isdetected in a scene and its size, location, warp and rotation measuredand extracted by a machine. As the camera recording the scene moves, theaim and location information is reversed and applied to the Maffletarget superimposition area, such that the area remains apparently fixedin location over the Maffle target. Another example is a productplacement location defined by an XYZ origin and 3D volume. A 3D CGIrendering of a product, for example a food blender, is placed within thevolume in the scene, and as the camera moves, its movement is reversedsuch that the food blender appears stationary.

A further example is the real time line of aim of a camera photographinga football game, evaluated against data comprising the location in spaceof a Maffle member who has agreed to publish their location coordinates.If the line of aim and focal plane coincide with the three dimensionallocation of the member, details about the member are transmitted toMaffle for use as limited by the member, such as showing off to theirfriends watching the football game on TV.

Intellectual Property

At 698 details of the intellectual property (IP) included in the contentalong with chronological occurrence are mapped. The owner of the IP,terms of use including the cost structure to access the IP, and paymentaccounts, preferably Maffle accounts are included along with any otherdata required to protect and compensate IP owners for the use of theirwork. Elements in the IP track may comprise but are not limited to thepercentage ownership of the IP that determines how payments aresubdivided, and the actual legal text of licenses and agreementscontrolling the use of the IP. An aspect of this disclosure isdelegating the management and configuration of an IP track within anetwork-accessed content map to the owner of the IP. Examples of IP thatmay be included in the content are artworks such as paintings andsculpture, words and writings, music and sounds.

The IP category may also comprise the terms for access and searches ofIP contained within the content map itself, such as the text of thecontent dialog or musical notation of the sound track, which arepreferably stored in an encrypted form.

Related to the intellectual property category but not shown in FIG. 23is a permissions category whereby persons or businesses grant certainrights to the producer of the content in return for structuredcompensation recorded in the content map. For example, the owner of abuilding grants the right to film a scene in the building without chargein return for collecting one-quarter of one Maffle each time the contentis played. Preferably this kind of category automatically dividespayments made within the Maffle ecosystem to the appropriate parties.

Payments to IP owners are discussed in further detail in FIG. 14 ,Purchasing via Ad Consumption.

Data and Merchandise

At 699 data of any kind may be stored inside the content map, forexample still images, video clips, and application data in any form suchas spacial information for a video game that plays along with the movie.

At 700 the category comprises a “store” of related digital itemsavailable for a cost and information about related merchandise forpurchase. For example, toys and apparel with a movie theme can bepurchased using information from the content map accessed by amerchandise browser application on the movie playback device.

Watermarks, Text Banners and Overlays

Not shown on FIG. 23 but an aspect of this disclosure is a content mapcomprising the specifications of visual overlays such as watermarks,crawling banners and static text. A further aspect of this disclosure iscalculating a payout amount the network or producer of content willcompensate a viewer for NOT masking a watermark, static or moving text.The payout table is preferably comprised within the same category of thecontent map. Another aspect of this disclosure is a content map with thegraphic image of a watermark or logo, whereby a viewer can toggle thedisplay of the graphic image. A further aspect is automaticallycompensating a viewer for toggling on the graphic image.

Maffle Targets

As described later for FIGS. 34, 35, 36, 37, 38 and 39 , and FIG. 9(targets in virtual space), the content map further comprises thespecification of Maffle targets in any and all forms. Embedded targetsare also further described starting at step 393 in FIG. 34 .

Content Fingerprints of Mood and Feel

Another aspect of this disclosure is taking information from categoriesand elements in the previously described content map of FIG. 23 , andgenerating one or more fingerprints of the content in a differentparameter space, such that aspects of the content map are depicted astwo dimensional abstract images, or three dimensional abstract patterns.Another aspect of this disclosure is such images and patterns changeover time in relation to the content map changing over time, such timecomprising being accelerated.

A further aspect is that the images and solids derived from two or morecontent maps comprise being comparable by a machine to determinesimilarities and differences. Another further aspect is that the imagesand solids are differentiable by a human being such that content mapswith similar qualities appear similar, and content maps with differingqualities appear different.

Another aspect of the disclosure is a content map fingerprint comprisinga graphic timeline with an X and a Y axis, such that one end of thegraphic along the X axis represents the beginning of the content, andthe other the end of the content, and the levels of gray or color in theY axis, and relative scale of any gray or color line or band at anypoint comprise being related to elements in a content map. Anotheraspect is the graphic timeline comprising being wrapped. For example, along horizontal timeline may be wrapped such that it fills a square bydividing it into equal lengths that are stacked one upon the other.

Content map representations are similar in concept to profilefingerprint images as described for FIG. 5 , whereby a square swatch orband of abstract shapes and colors comprises the entire mood/feel of awork. Temporal info can be embedded in the band, or in stripes across asquare.

Any number of two or three dimensional fingerprints may be generatedthat together represent a single content entity or aspects of thethereof.

Content fingerprints may further be generated for songs and other artforms with abstract concepts that provide a “feel” over time, such asbooks, video games and stage plays.

Other examples of elements suitable for content fingerprinting areexcitement, story elegance, moodiness color, and outcome color. Thetotal color palette represents the feel of the entire movie.

Human synesthetes who see internalized colors and patterns while hearingmusic or watching movies, may be hired to document their color andsensory experience while watching content. Such information may be usedto generate fingerprints or refine the computational process used togenerate them automatically.

An aspect of this disclosure is an iterative process, whereby acomputational process automatically generates a fingerprint swatchintended to represent the mood of an entire movie; the swatch is shownto a synesthete who has watched the movie and provides feedback abouthow accurately the swatch captures the mood of the movie; and thecomputational process is modified using such feedback to improve theaccuracy of subsequent swatches.

Another aspect of this disclosure is generating content fingerprintsthat resemble Rorschach test images.

In the case of books and text, language and text analysis to may be usedto generate swatches separately from the category and elementinformation in the content map.

Also through an iterative process involving feedback from people orsynesthetes, summary swatches can be computationally generated thatrepresent an entity or quality in its entirety like an effectiveabstract painting. For example, a single color swatch represents theessence of an actress. A swatch representing a bad movie has anunpleasant sort of disturbing look to it, and the swatch representingthe essence of a great movie looks appealing.

Swatches may used for Al and machine learning to find movies with thesame qualities - same for songs, books, etc., or compared by humans.

Fingerprint swatches generated to represent qualities of a memberprofile as described for FIG. 5 may be used to automatically finddesirable content for the member by having a machine compare the memberprofile swatches with various content swatches having relatedrepresentations.

A Temporal Parameter Solid Derived From a Content Map

FIG. 24 is an isometric view of one embodiment of a temporal parametersolid automatically generated using information from a content map. Nolimitation is implied about how the solid is generated as many methodsmay be used to generate a three dimensional shape from variouscategories of time-variant data, as will be apparent to one skilled inthe art and upon understanding this disclosure.

A solid comprised of lathed function curves intersected arbitrarily in aplane perpendicular to the lathe axis of rotation is created. Time isrepresented by the X axis, while the Y and Z axis form a plane uponwhich circles with radii related to the magnitude of various content mapelements are arranged in an arbitrary but constant manner. At 716 theradius of one of several circles on the YZ plane represents a value onthe content map such as funniness. As time progresses and funninessincreases, so does the radius of the circle at that temporal location.Should funniness decrease, which is so often the case, the radiusdecreases at that point in time in the content. The three dimensionalshape of funniness therefore appears similar to a turned table leg.

An arbitrary number of content element parameters represented by circleswith varying radii are also included in an arbitrary arrangement on theYZ plane, which forms a pattern of overlapped circles. Each circle andrelated lathed solid is assigned a different arbitrary color or shade ofgray.

The three dimensional solid as a whole is the addition of each latheshape into a single entity, such entity now representing the totalqualities of all the included parameters over a length of time.

The appearance of the solid is machine learnable and recognizable, suchthat the solids generated from content with similar qualities will havemachine recognizable similarities, for example by using imageprocessing, spacial processing algorithms or neural networks. Likewise,a human may recognize similarities between content parameter solids inorder to choose desired or rejected content. pacial processingalgorithms or neural networks.

Temporal Parameter Solid Section

FIG. 25 is an isometric view of a temporal parameter solid in sectionview. The varying relationships between the various content elementparameters may be better evaluated by a machine or human in the form ofa cross section. The section view reveals the interweaving of thevarious parameters as they grow and shrink in radius over time. Thefigure shows a quarter-section, but any type of solid sectioning ispossible, such as a half section or section in the YZ plane instead ofthe XY or XZ plane. Descriptions of example colors for each parameterare labeled on the figure.

Maffle TV Block Diagram

FIG. 19 is a hardware block diagram of one embodiment of a Maffle TV.One skilled in the art will recognize the many ways the hardwarecomponents of a television with network connections and graphicprocessing may be configured, and the following description serves as anexample only and is not intended to be limiting. Furthermore, the inputsand outputs of a television device are highly configurable in anycombination, and no particular input or output is necessary in order toimplement the various aspects of this disclosure.

At 636 the picture I/O interface converts video inputs from varioussources into a video frame format, for example from a cable networkinput comprising a decoder; an antenna input for decoding over-the-airbroadcasts with a tuner; an HDMI input for connection to a computer orcascading the Maffle TV with for example a cable box or network set-topbox; composite analog inputs from a VCR; input from a disc player suchas a DVD or Blueray; game console inputs; and input from a DVR. Thepicture I/O transfers the frame data to the system I/O 641 via an HDMIbus in the form of interlaced or non-interlaced video comprising streamsof digital images with varying amounts of pixels and aspect ratios, forexample 1920×1080 pixels in width and height, and at 24 frames persecond, progressively (or non-interlaced).

At 637 audio inputs are taken from various sources such as an analogjack with an analog to digital converter, a digital input, for examplevia coax S/PDIF format, over short-range radio protocols such asBluetooth, or from a wireless network connection. Suitable integratedprocessors for the various inputs handle the format conversions. Theaudio inputs are processed into a digital representation of an audiowaveform with a sample rate for example of 48-kHz, and a bit depth, forexample of 24-bits.

At 638 controller inputs are taken from remote infrared devices, gamecontrollers, or other controllers via short range or network radiosignals. Controller inputs typically enter the system I/O 641 via a USBbus. External storage devices such as hard drives, solid state drives,thumb drives and memory cards may be attached to the television usingUSB or a descendent bus format. Portable devices such as mobile phonesand laptop computers may be connected by wire to the television usingthe USB bus.

At 639 flash memory is used for storing the television operating system,application executables and data files, user data and buffered content.The nature of the intermission content is determined by the member’sprofile and may comprise the member’s ad pool, in addition to a libraryof various content types such as movies, television programs, music,home videos and images.

At 640 a SATA bus provides a high-speed bus to connect hard drives,solid state drives and the like, such storage volume further increasingthe size of the content and ad pool buffer or cache. Other high-speedexternal device protocols are contemplated for example Thunderbolt andFirewire and can be used in place of or in addition to the SATA bus.

At 642 network connections to the television are made via wired orwireless protocols and a deep packet inspection filter andfirewall/router preferably remotely configured by Maffle removesunwanted ads, content or malicious data and communication prior to itentering the television processor I/O 645.

At 651 the main processor group preferably comprised within a singleintegrated processing chip or unit, provides for a CPU (centralprocessing unit), GPU (graphics processing unit), MMU (memory managementunit), I/O and DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) controller. The I/O645 provides an interface between the system I/O 641 and outside networkconnections 642 and the internal processing units. The I/O 645 furtherprovides the output connections for picture 643 and audio 644.

The CPU 648 executes computations per the software architecture of theoperating system and as instructed by applications both loaded when thesystem boots from flash memory 639. Not shown in the figure is possibleROM or other persistent memory storing firmware that may be updatable.

The MMU 647 independently relates the physical memory address locationsin the television DRAM 650 through the DRAM controller 649, to virtualmemory address locations used by the CPU as instructed by the OS.

The GPU 646 independently performs frame and stream processing asdelegated by the CPU and using frames directly from the I/O 645 whileaddressing DRAM directly via the controller at 649 or via the MMU 647.

At 643, the resultant video/picture is output to a built-in screen orvia HDMI or other wired protocol for example suitable for a virtualreality headset, or streamed over a wired or wireless networkconnection.

At 644 the resultant audio is output to built-in speakers; via the audiochannels in the HDMI output; as analog outputs via a digital to analogconverter; as a digital audio output for example S/PDIF coax, or asaudio over a short range protocol such as Bluetooth or a wired orwireless network connection.

The picture input and output may further be in the form of left-eye andright-eye images that together present stereoscopic imagery to a viewer.Audio is stereo or multichannel, such as in a surround sound format suchas 5.1.

Maffle TV Hardware Components

FIG. 20 is a drawing of the physical Maffle TV hardware components. Oneskilled in the art will recognize the infinite ways in which atelevision enclosure and interfacing components such as the remotecontrol may be designed and configured. This description is thus notintended to be limiting but serving as a simple television configurationfor illustration purposes.

At 673 the device described comprises a hardware box connected via HDMIto a television display. Alternatively and preferably the Maffletelevision comprises a single unit comprising a display with built-inhardware and interface components.

The unit 673 has all the connections described in the block diagram ofFIG. 19 which are provisioned either on the front 673 or rear 674 of thecase. The front of the case is preferably outfitted with an IR sensorfor a remote, and the connections by which a member may convenientlyplug wired devices in and out of the device, such as a headphone jack,thumb drive or game controller. Additionally, a power connector isprovided.

A hardware remote 671 is provided for channel changing and configuringthe device, including switching between a raw, unfiltered broadcaststream, and a Maffle-enabled version. A pointing paddle, joystick,finger touch surface or other physical input technology is provided thatmay be used to position graphical elements on the display 672 such as awindow enclosing an offending element 675 that the member wantsprocessed or removed by Maffle technology, for example the watermarkenclosed by the window at 675.

An aspect of this disclosure is a television remote comprising amagnitude input such that a person may input over time, their emotionalresponse to a subjective quality of content, for example funniness,which is recorded and uploaded to a remote network automatically. Afurther aspect of this disclosure is provisioning the remote withbiometric inputs such as an EEG that record physiological responseschronologically with program material, such responses uploaded to aremote network automatically. Another aspect of this disclosure is thatuploading such responses automatically credits an account. Anotheraspect of this disclosure is a video game comprising such responsescausing graphical or sound changes, or responses being used to competeagainst remote network players. Another aspect of this disclosure is theresponses from one or more members causing a content map for contentsuch as video or music to be revised.

An alternative to the dedicated hardware remote 671 is a mobile device670 running an application designed to control the Maffle TV. The mobiledevice 670 may alternatively be used in addition to the dedicatedhardware remote 671.

Biometric inputs for measuring viewer’s physiological responses whilewatching or listening to content may be integrated in any way, such ason the remote, using a mobile device running an application andcommunicating with a network, by wired detectors or body mounted sensorssuch as a headband that plug into the remote or the television hardware,or transmitting such responses over short-range radio such as Bluetooth.

The mobile device 670 may be used to provide the member’s librarycontent, output from an application, or a network video or audio stream,for use by the Maffle TV display and audio hardware, for example, tosuperimpose over an unwanted element or play during a commercial break.

For example, the member configures their profile or viewing preferencessuch that when an over-the-air broadcast channel goes to a commercialbreak, an album from their personal library automatically plays whilefamily pictures display on the television screen. When the commercialbreak is over, the broadcast program automatically resumes while causinga chime to ring on the mobile device.

Maffle TV Part I

FIG. 21 is a flow chart of one possible Maffle TV implementation. Comingfrom FIG. 13 at step 102 and door number 7, the member enters watchestelevision at step 212 and door number 7 on FIG. 21 .

Video or television may be consumed on a television display withbuilt-in or separate Maffle-enabling hardware and or software asdescribed in FIGS. 19 and 20 , or a computer or portable device withaccess to video, such as a mobile phone with a browser applicationaccessing a broadcast network television site with video streamingcapabilities. Versions of Maffle TV can furthermore be implemented insoftware on television set-top boxes or game consoles with suitableoperating systems and I/O capabilities.

One skilled in the art will recognize all the devices that can implementthe described steps, and no limitation is implied about the hardware andsoftware platforms used to facilitate the disclosure.

At step 214 the member signs in with Maffle and begins watching TV.Access to the member’s profile and simulacrum are preferably locked tounique hardware ID’s per step 216, within the Maffle TV, mobile deviceunique serial number or portable hardware ID device such as a dongle.

At step 218, the program analog or digital stream is obtained from oneor more of a cable network, over-the-air broadcast or a network, alsoreferred to as AV (audio and/or video) content. At step 220 the rawstream may be toggled on such that it displays without modification onthe display at step 250. The display at step 250 is the PRESENTATION orAV output of the AV content either in its raw form or as combined withany of the processing steps described throughout this disclosure such asblurring, removing, masking, muting, overlaying and superimpositioning.

At step 268 the member sets auto-watch limits and filters for theirprofile, such that the cost as set by the producer or network for aprogram and communicated to the member in advance must be within certainlimits or the member will not agree to pay for the content. Such termsare preferably negotiated automatically by the robots of the member andthe content producer or network. At step 222 if the program terms areunacceptable, the content is blocked at 224 from incurring any costs tothe member, or in the case of cable or over-the-air content, the rawstream for the channel is activated such that the member may consume thecontent along with any unsolicited advertisements.

At step 222 if the program terms are acceptable to the member’s profileor simulacrum, the program stream is buffered for example for tenseconds, such that parallel network or local computations havesufficient time to complete and upload before the program displays.

At step 254 and door number 10, an existing content map for the programis either download as a file or parallel stream of data from thebroadcaster, a parallel stream or data file on a network, or a newcontent map is generated in real-time by Maffle, a local computer, or amultiplicity of computers on a network.

Content Map Generation

FIG. 22 is a flow chart of content map generation. At step 192 and doornumber 10, from FIG. 21 , a content map is accessed or created. Theelements of a content map are described in FIG. 23 .

At step 211 if the title of the content is known and a content mapalready exists for that title, the map may be further refined to improveaccuracy at step 195, or left in its current form and continuesunmodified at step 210 and door number 12, which returns to FIG. 21 .

At step 209 a content fingerprint is calculated comprising uniquecharacteristics of the content for preferably the first seconds of thecontent’s duration. For example, the average luma of a group of pixelsin each quadrant of a video image is recorded every six frames. Thatsequence of luma measurements over a period of time is a uniquefingerprint to the source material. The sequence of peaks of the totalluma in any region of pixels forms a unique pattern that alsoconstitutes a fingerprint.

Any combination of video image attributes may be used, such asinformation in one or more of the RGB channels in any combination ofsampling locations or strategies, either by pixel coordinates, rates ofchange, or relative values. For example, for any group of pixels, thedifference in the total levels between each of the Red, Green and Bluechannel constitutes a unique fingerprint. Another example is a sequenceof image recognition attempts using the same machine, so that even ifthe recognition is incorrect, it will match from attempt to attempt.

Audio fingerprints comprise a sequence of sample measurements, forexample the frequency constituents can be recorded over time, or thepattern created by peaks or minima can be used.

At step 205 the fingerprint stream 209 is preferably continuouslycompared by a machine against a known collection of fingerprintssearching for unique matches. If a fingerprint match is found at 193,the content map may either be used as stored, or refined to improve itsaccuracy. Over a period of time, for example, years, a content map of afixed work such as a movie will asymptotically approach perfectlyaccurate and complete and require no further refinement. An aspect ofthis disclosure is discriminating the difference between completecontent maps and those requiring refinement, the complete maps comprisehaving a threshold of modifications to the content map elements thatdetermines completeness.

At step 195 if the content map does not require refinement, it continuesto step 210 and door number 12, which returns to FIG. 21 .

At step 197 the content is evaluated by Maffle computers, robots and Alsystems comprising hardware and software for the automaticidentification and quantification of content map elements and Maffletargets as described later for FIG. 34 . The program stream 199 ispreferably obtained from an antenna, cable transmission or a network butcan be from any source. The content is preferably selected forevaluation either by network communication with the hardware device of amember, or for an ongoing group of local or regional content channelspopular with local and regional members. Maffle may furthermore createcontent maps of the universe of existing content, for example, of allthe movies available for mapping. Alternatively, the computer of amember can generate a content map on a local device comprising hardwareand software as discussed further in FIG. 21 . No limitation is impliedregarding where or when a content map may be created or refined.

At step 201 the content map is created or refined in real time,identifying for example people, elements and commercial breaks, alsoreferred to as AV EVENTS.

Maffle Game Room and Mafflers

At step 203, human-supervised content map generation or correction isaccomplished.

Aspects of this section also apply to MOB MUTE as described in detaillater and in FIG. 32 . Instead of the teams described below, individualmembers contribute to the refinement of content maps using an interfaceto identify AV events.

Over time, machines and Al per steps 197 and 201 will take overincrementally automating the real-time generation of programming contentmaps. While that Al infrastructure is being developed, content maps maybe generated or corrected (an Al generated first-pass, for example) byteams of humans working in the “MAFFLE GAME ROOM”. Each person or teamgets a cockpit of screens and controllers designed for high-speedmarking and identification of content map elements and commercialbreaks. Preferably one person or team is assigned to each channel in aviewer area, be it over-the-air network, cable or live streaming.

As a program plays, the “MAFFLER” uses controllers (interfaces) toidentify AV events, highlight regions, point out targets and elementsand flag commercial breaks. Commercials can also be content mapped bythe Maffler. At 207 the content map 206 for that channel is livestreamed from the Maffle network to the Maffle TV box, compatiblehardware or software browser/viewer/app. The receiving device uses thecontent map per the member’s settings to overlay, mask and displaydesired visuals.

Mafflers may also comprise members with appropriate controller hardwarewho collectively generate real-time content maps for use by the networkand each other, as further described in FIG. 21 . Member Mafflerscompete with each other and collect maffles as a reward for being thefastest, most accurate, etc. at locating content map elements. Alluploaded live-stream elements for a given program are combined onMaffle’s servers to ascertain accuracy. A specification for minimumaccuracy can be developed to prevent errors uploaded by an individualmaffler to propagate to the network.

A bell curve will be seen that can retroactively determine a givenmaffler’s response time which can be used for grading and rewards. Thesystem can track very accurate and fast mafflers to further speed up theprocess by weighting their inputs at a higher trust level than untestedor proven slow or inaccurate mafflers. Local, regional and nationalmaffler rankings can be ascertained and made available for furtheringcompetition, and each program can be ranked. See FIGS. 32 and 33regarding Mob Mute for another example of grading a response curve.

Voice recognition combined with graphical input provides fast andinteractive identification of people and objects. For example, as soonas a person appears on screen, the Maffler says their name which islogged with the timecode into the content map. The Maffler may furtherplace a graphical target on the person and assist with tracking them asthey move. Such movements may also be automatically tracked by software.Objects can also be named out loud and added to the content map withtheir timing appearance. People and objects can be further identified byvoice recognition as to when they are no longer visible. Scene changescan be automatically detected by software which may clear all objectsfrom the content map.

A list of current targets is superimposed as a list or in place over theobject. Targets can be deleted from the list by selection orautomatically. First person shooter-style selection can be used toremove targets or to locate new targets. For example, if John Waynewalks into a scene, the member says “John Wayne” while placing a cursortarget on the actor and pulling a trigger, which links the location tothe actor. “John Wayne” is added to the active targets list, and when heexits the scene, his name can be “shot” off the active targets list.

The human-supervised inputs may be used to “train” the Al system,providing a corrective feedback mechanism to improve the accuracy of theAI/machine learning algorithms, so that over time, less and less humanintervention is required for high accuracy.

Content Map Generation Cont

At step 194 an application for creating content maps is used. Theapplication is either a stand alone computer application or a plug-infor a video or audio editor or playback application per step 196. Atstep 198 preferably the producer of the content builds the content maptimeline with elements and locations per FIG. 23 .

For example, in a typical video editing application, additional tracksfor content map elements are visible along with the video and audiotracks of the original content. At step 200 the various elements areselected and identified. At step 202 object and image recognitioncapabilities may be built into the software to automate at least in partbuilding the content map elements. At step 204 child sensitive contentsuch as violence or explicit sexual material is mapped and rated.

At step 206 the completed content map is created or refined, then livestreamed 207 or uploaded as data 208 to Maffle for network availabilityto members.

Maffle TV Part II

At step 256 and door number 12 in FIG. 21 , the content map of FIG. 22returns to the Maffle TV and is accessed in parallel with the content at262.

At step 282 the “raw” content map for a program is combined with theprofile settings of the member that comprises the actions the memberdesires to be taken for specific individual or combinations of contentelements (local trained), along with one or more crowd specified contentelements and actions. “Program supplied” elements are from content mapsmade available by the producer of the content or as emerging at step 256and door number 12.

Another embodiment of this disclosure is a crowd fingerprints databasethat comprises elements individually located within content such that aparticular category or track of an element may trigger a specific actionwhen the element occurs during the content. Members locate and flagelements using hardware and software and upload the mapped elements to acrowd database on Maffle’s network, which is made available to all othermembers or a subset thereof per the member’s profile settings.

Members may join crowd groups of like minded members who share settingscontrolling the actions taken when elements occur during a program.

For example, a member loves cats and sets their profile such that as amovie plays, the crowd fingerprints for that movie locating catsnotifies the member shortly prior to the cats appearing per step 240.Another example is a television program with explicit violence that themember wants muted when it occurs per step 238. Another example is amember joining a crowd group that doesn’t want to see any crawling textbanners on any program, whereby all crawling text is obscured with amask, and the members of the group locate such text on their localdevices which automatically shares the locations with the group on thenetwork.

Another way to describe the embodiment is a content map as described inFIG. 23 divided into multiple sub-maps, each comprising at least onecategory or element and accessible separately from the complete contentmap on a subscription basis. One skilled in the art will recognize thevarious data structures possible to accomplish this, such as individualfiles or streams, or a single database with suitable addressablecategories. A content map may be comprised of a collection of individualsub-maps comprising a category or element, altogether forming a completecontent map.

Example categories available in a crowd fingerprints database arewatermarks 288, described further in FIG. 26 at step 226, banners 290,logos 292, audio and sounds 294, offensive moments 296, offensive ads298, people 300, voices 302, things 304, and animals 306. These categoryexample are not intended to be limiting. The total of these elements 308is combined with the raw content map and the member’s local map at 282.

At step 270 the member profile ad filter settings and consumptioncredentials 272 (purchase history and rating) determine the member’s adpool, which is downloaded and buffered at steps 258 and 260, preferablycontinuously as background network and computational processes.

Intermission Content

At step 266 intermission content in addition to the ad pool is queuedfor display as determined by the member’s profile. Alternative programsset to play during intermissions are preferably downloaded or bufferedat step 264 but may be comprised of a automatic alternative channelswitching per the description of FIG. 15 .

At step 263 intermission content is queued such as backgroundapplications including games, dating and friend finding, languagetraining, education and social interaction. For example, during acommercial break, the profile of a potential dating partner located bythe member’s simulacrum is presented or a conversation started. Anotherexample is a short language vocabulary lesson during the break, or abrief math tutorial. An aspect of this disclosure is educational lessonsbroken into into commercial-length fragments that automatically playduring commercials and automatically return to the program after thecommercial break.

At steps 276, 278 and 280, video, photos and images, and audio materialsuch as songs from the member’s library are made available forpresentation during an intermission. For example, a slide show of familyphotos and songs from the member’s music library automatically playduring commercial breaks.

At step 284 the member sets preferences and filters for actions to betaken when certain elements occur, such as blurring or masking offensiveelements at step 238 or notification alerts when desired elements arepending at step 240. At step 286 intermission settings determine whathappens during intermissions in conjunction with intermission content266.

Another aspect of this disclosure is automatically changing the natureof commercial break content based on subjective categories and elementsin a content map. For example, for a high intensity program, highintensity rock music is played during the commercial break to sustainthe emotional content of the program, or relaxing smooth jazz playsduring a nature show.

At step 226 and door number 9, as part of the content mapping ecosystem,watermarks and banners are targeted and managed.

Watermark and Banner Management Part I

Referring now to FIG. 26 at step 309 and door number 9, the watermarkand banner management process begins at step 311. At step 315 thecontent map preferably comprises watermark information including paymentschedules.

One skilled in the art will recognize that a simple query to a networkserver relating an active television channel to it’s watermark andpayout information can substitute for similar information in a contentmap and as negotiated by the simulacra of the parties. All references tocontent maps are thereby not intended to be limiting as any method ofcorrelating data with a channel playing at a given time of day arecontemplated.

If at step 315 the member can be compensated for the display of awatermark or banner and chooses to do so by their profile settings 317,the watermark or text banner is displayed at 325 along with a creditmedallion per FIG. 31 . An aspect of this disclosure is storing thewatermark image data of a variety of sources and broadcast channels on alocal device. For example, the broadcasters provide watermark images fordownload to a member’s TV, which stores the watermarks in a local memorylocation or on a flash drive. If the member’s profile allows it, thewatermarks are automatically superimposed over the correspondingnon-watermarked broadcast channel content and the member is compensatedas negotiated.

If the member declines display of the watermark, it is either disabledif provided to the member as a separate overlay in the content map orotherwise by the network, or by local removal 313.

Watermark Compensation Indicator

FIG. 31 is a drawing of a network watermark 738 with a visibilitycompensation indicator 736. The medallion preferably increments thetotal paid by the network to the member per minute or other increment oftime 737. For example, the member’s simulacrum negotiates with thesimulacrum of the channel network that the member will accept 0.05Maffles per minute of watermark visibility. The payout indicator 737then increases by 0.05 per minute of display time.

Watermark and Banner Management Part Ii

Referring back to FIG. 26 at step 317, the content is consumed at 325per the watermark display settings and the settings stored for thatchannel at 313.

At step 313 if the watermark and banner masking preferences for thechannel have not been stored, the watermark or banner may be eitherhidden with an overlay, blurred or removed/reversed at step 327.

If overlay is chosen, at step 347 the member may use a cursor to locateand size a target that fits over the watermark or banner. For example, asuitable remote control with a cursor and pointing mechanism or gamecontroller can be used to draw a rectangle or ellipse around anoffending watermark or text banner.

At step 349 the content of the overlay is chosen, such as a solid colorthat can be chosen with a variety of methods such as an eyedropper pickfrom an on-screen color. Visual content from the member’s library may bechosen to fill the target area, such as rotating family photos orvideos, or the target area may be blurred or translucent.

At step 319 the mask settings are applied and stored for later recallwhen returning to the masked channel at step 313. At step 321 watermarksand banners that move may be tracked using image recognition, with theorigins of manually specified masks adjusted to maintain target masking.

At step 323 masked text banners are transcribed into ASCII or other textusing character recognition software. At step 341, the transcribed textstream may be sent to an another device for example a mobile phone, andalert settings that search for words and phrases may be set by themember such that when a text string matches an alert filter at step 343,the banner is for example exposed by temporarily removing the mask, orthe text string is otherwise displayed or transmitted to the member, forexample by text message or email at step 345.

If the watermark is chosen for removal at step 327, at step 329 anetwork is queried to see if a mask for the channel is available fordownload at step 333. Members may crowd share masks among themselves, orversions of masks preferably not comprising intellectual property, forexample not comprising image data, are available on the Maffle network.

If the mask is not available for download, it is extracted at steps 331and 335 and door number 14 per FIG. 27 .

Watermark Extraction Part I

FIG. 27 is a flow chart of one embodiment of watermark extraction. Atstep 350 and door number 14 the process enters from FIG. 26 . At step352 the member may have a machine locate a watermark automatically or bymanually specifying a target area. At step 354 for manual targeting, themember uses a controller such as a remote control or game controller tolocate and size a target over a watermark stamp or text banner. At step356, the content under the target area is removed per profile settingsand a satisfying visual and audible reward is preferably provided.

Two ways of computationally removing watermarks are now describedstarting at step 358, which buffers the content into a sequence ofimages of individually computable frames, for example the last fifteenseconds of content which would comprise 360 frames at 24 frames persecond.

Isometric View of a Stack of Watermarks

FIG. 30 is an isometric view of a stack of pixelated images bearing achannel watermark. The figure shows the target area surrounding awatermark that a member might specify with a cursor, but the entireframe can alternatively be used.

Watermark Extraction Part II

At step 351 in FIG. 27 an aspect of this disclosure is reversing animage watermark by extracting the mark based on the dynamic range of aparameter of pixels over time, described at steps 353 and 357 and doornumber 18. At step 359 the pixels for a given frame are extracted anddenoised. At step 361 the luma or chroma value per pixel is determined.Over a period of time, for example 30 seconds, the range of values ofeach pixel is determined at step 363. If the dynamic range of a givenpixel is wider than a predetermined threshold per step 365, then thatpixel is discarded as background at step 367. If the dynamic range islower than the threshold, the pixel is added to the primary watermarkgroup of pixels at step 369. FIGS. 28 and 29 are two examples ofdetermining which pixels constitute the watermark by the dynamic rangeof a pixel parameter such as luma.

Dynamic Range Histogram

FIG. 28 is a histogram of the dynamic range of a parameter of pixels ina frame. Each vertical bar represents the number of pixels that occurwithin a percentage range of the maximum dynamic range possible over thesample period of time. The predetermined dynamic range thresholdestimated for typical watermarks is shown at 723.

For example, the vertical bar at the far right of the histogramrepresents pixels that ranged from a luma value of completely black tocompletely white over the sampling period, which is the maximum possiblerange. The vertical bar at the far left represents the number of pixelsthat varied by the smallest amount in luma over the sampling period,such luma values being relative and not necessarily close to full blackor white.

Watermarks typically persist and are stationary throughout the durationof a program, and therefore have either a zero dynamic range if they arecompletely opaque, or a narrow range if translucent because the dynamicrange is modestly effected by the luma of the background the watermarkcovers. At 722 the pixels representing the extracted watermark arelocated, computed by both their dynamic range and contiguousness on theimage sequence. A feather threshold may be computed that define theperimeter and edges of the watermark. Such pixels have a slightly widerdynamic range than the watermark pixels per 724, and are furthermoreadjacent to the watermark pixels.

Dynamic Range Pixel Elimination

FIG. 29 is a graph of pixel luma vs. time for eliminating pixels from achannel watermark extraction. Luma range can be used per this example,which is the weighted sum of linear or gamma-compressed RGB componentsdetermining the achromatic brightness of a pixel.

In this example, the luma value over time of three pixels are shown ascurves. 730 is a background pixel eliminated per step 367 in FIG. 27 ;729 is a feathered pixel at the edge or perimeter of the extractedwatermark, and 728 is a pixel located within the main body of thewatermark. The primary dynamic range of the watermark 731 may bepredetermined or computational optimized with an iterative process. Allpixels falling within the primary range 731 and adjacent or grouped inscreen location (forming a graphic watermark), are included as the bodyof the watermark. Once the primary watermark has been determined, theedges of the watermark combined with the pixels located within thefeathered pixel range 732 can be used to compute the feathered oraliased edges of the watermark comprising a tapering of translucency.The dynamic range inside the primary watermark defines the primarytransparency level.

Dynamic range iterations from fine to coarse can search for strongcorrelations, maximizing the number of stable adjacent pixels.

Watermark Extraction Part III

Returning to FIG. 27 , at step 371 the evaluation continues until theminimum sample time has been reached. At step 336 the primary group ofpixels has been determined and a perimeter is extracted. At step 338 thepixels adjacent to the perimeter are grouped, and further refined byexpanding the dynamic range of the primary group per step 340. At step342, similar computations for chroma for example in RGB channels may beused to estimate colors within the watermark. The color information maythen be used to reverse the colors of the covered background image asdescribed later. Once the watermark location is determined, a similarapproach can be taken for each of the RGB channels to extract chroma. Ifno range narrowing is found, then the stamp is achromatic.

At step 344 the extracted pixel information returns to step 355 and doornumber 20.

At step 360 an alternative way to extract the watermark begins bycreating a stack of the sampled images. The opacity of each frame is setto 100 percent divided by the total number of frames. The frames arecombined at step 362 such that changing pixels become increasinglytransparent the longer the sample time, and the watermark becomes lesstransparent. Adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing are examplesof possible frame blending modes. Mostly transparent pixels may besnapped to fully transparent at a threshold per step 364, and edges arefeathered or aliases at step 366.

At step 368, alpha and luma (and optionally color channel) masks aregenerated and at step 370 uploaded to a network for crowd sharing. Oncea stamp design has been identified, it can be stored and used as amatching template. As soon as a small number of pixels match apercentage portion of the stored template, the complete template is usedfor the program stamp.

At step 372 and door number 16 the process returns to FIG. 26 at 337 anddoor number 16.

Watermark and Banner Management Part IV

Referring back to FIG. 26 at step 339, the extracted or downloadedwatermark masking information is used to remove the watermark usingsuitable masks, blending modes, interpolation, feathering, aliasing andblurring as required.

Maffle TV Part III

At step 228 and door number 11 in FIG. 21 , the program continues tostep 230 and door number 13 to FIG. 34 .

Maffle Targets and Content Superimposition Part I Embedded Targets

FIG. 34 is a flow chart of the detection and superimposition of desiredcontent over targets or unwanted elements. At step 373 and door number13 coming from FIG. 21 , the superimposition module is accessed at step375. At step 393 ad targets are pre-identified by the content produceror network/broadcaster preferably specified in the program’s content mapper FIG. 23 , but alternatively by parallel broadcast or network data.At step 395, the content map may comprise camera tracking information(FIG. 23 at 697) such that camera movement can be reversed to hold atarget stationary with respect to the objects in the scene. Forreal-time events, encoders on cameras can transmit movement informationin parallel with picture, or the camera tracking can be computationallydetermined from an image buffer in real-time.

At step 397 members may manually specify where to place ads inside thescene, such ads still reacting appropriately to camera movement. At step399 target field sizes, shapes and coordinates are buffered forcombination with desired ad pool or other content.

Image Recognition Placement

At step 377 computational processes for image recognition comprisingpattern matching or machine learning locate elements such asadvertisements within each scene of the program (i.e., by a machine).Ads, brands and logos may further comprise fingerprints in anetwork-accessible data format that can be compared with areas within aframe of a program.

At step 379 the chronological location, size and coordinates of theelement are queued for superimposition. At step 381 the corners andperimeters of the element are extracted, which define the warped, skewedor unaltered 2D area or 3D volume of the element. Alternatively,elements may be defined by the program content map, locally ifpreviously analyzed by the superimposition module 375, supplied bycrowd-programmed network information related to the content or imagepatterns, or information supplied by Maffle on a network.

At step 383 per the member’s profile settings, unwanted anduncompensated ads, logos and brands are blurred preferably in a visuallyunobtrusive manner, for example with a camera-blur algorithm, and withedge sampling for feathering with adjacent pixels.

At step 385 computational camera tracking translates element locationsto match camera movements.

Alternatively at step 409 a “scene trainer” application executing on theMaffle TV hardware or another device provides for the manualspecification of ads, logos, brand markings and other elements usingpointing technology such as remote controls, game controllers, touchscreens, and eyeball gaze detectors. The locations of manually specifiedelements are recorded and stored in their chronological relationship tothe program content, such that they may be shared with a crowd orotherwise stored by the member for future viewings of the same content.

Maffle Target Detector

At step 401 MAFFLE TARGETS are searched for computationally using imageand pattern recognition and machine learning.

Maffle Targets

FIG. 39 shows embodiments of superimposition targets with varyingpatterns and color combinations. The patterns and geometry, shades andcolors are optimized for image recognition by machines and tolerant ofpixellation, distortion and blurring. Targets can appear in any mediaand environment, such as movies and video/TV content, video games in 2Dor 3D, still images, on clothing, billboards, and printed media such asnewspapers and magazines. The preceding list are examples and notintended to be limiting. Anywhere anything can be seen is a potentialplace for a Maffle target. Patterns on cloth subsequently made intoclothing can form Maffle targets.

Another aspect of this disclosure are Maffle targets comprised ofmachine recognizable artworks such as paintings or sculpture, which areunique and therefore suitable as targets, graphic designs without limit,individual people who are machine recognizable, any unique photographand any unique object or structure, including architectural structures.Another aspect of this disclosure is such objects are unique in designbut occur multiple times. For example, a unique puppy dog statuereplicated and positioned in many public places.

For example, a famous movie star registers with Maffle as a populartarget, so whenever they appear on a member’s device, ad pool content asdefined in the member’s profile is displayed to the member at the sametime, and the movie star collects Maffles in return for providing thedisplay surface to the advertiser. The member preferably sees via aMaffle medallion how much the movie star is paid for providing thetargeting service, and further preferably is paid out of the totalamount paid to the member by the ad pool advertiser. Furthermore, themovie star via their own profile settings controls exactly what isallowed to be displayed along with their image, and may further taylorwhat is displayed by the profile of the member, for example with memberswho have identified themselves as fans of the celebrity.

Another example is an attractive original painting hung on the wall of amovie set and appearing in various scenes. Non-Maffle members only seethe painting, but members may see ad pool or other content along with apayment medallion and collect Maffles during the movie. The artist ofthe painting is additionally paid in Maffles for each member’s use ofthe painting as a target.

An aspect of this disclosure are Maffle targets that do not necessarilycomprise a contiguous pattern area, but may be comprised of variousspots, regions or areas that in combination are machine recognizable asa target, and furthermore may be comprised of a field with a machinerecognizable repeating pattern that covers an entire area. The spots,regions or areas may be widely separated and still form a machinerecognizable Maffle target.

Another aspect of this disclosure is a single Maffle target comprised oftwo or more people defining an area. For example, at a football game,three people in the stands all visible within the single field of viewof a camera define a triangular area from which a related Maffle targetis computed. The people are identified as MAFFLE TARGETEERS. Each iswearing a Maffle target on their person, or alternatively or incombination, transmitting their location and targeteer qualifications bya mobile network preferably in the form of GPS coordinates and Mafflemember credentials, from which payment for superimposition arenegotiated and determined. Targeteers will be described in furtherdetail later for FIGS. 35 and 36 .

Another aspect of this disclosure is a virtual billboard comprisinggeospatial coordinates forming a virtual surface area or threedimensional volume upon or within which content is superimposed. Forexample, three devices may be placed at three corners of one wall of abuilding each transmitting the GPS coordinates of their location. Amember’s device in proximity to the building is provided the coordinatedata by short range radio such as bluetooth, or by network such as wi-fior cellular. The member via a superimposition device such as a mobilecamera, heads-up glasses or display then sees ad pool contentsuperimposed over the defined area and collects Maffles. The owner ofthe building furthermore preferably collects Maffles for the use of thebuilding surface.

Another aspect of this disclosure is such virtual billboards, surfaceareas and volumes to be stored on a network as coordinate data. Forexample, the owner of the building in the example above, registers thebuilding wall surface with Maffle by measuring the geospatialcoordinates of three corners of the wall using a GPS or other surveyingdevice.

Targets can be on printed media such as newspapers and magazines and“read” with a mobile device, heads-up transparent display or with VRglasses. The device and software superimpose ads and images and pay themember and publisher, as described previously for FIGS. 6 and 11 .Movies in a theater watched with 3D or VR glasses can superimpose Maffleads uniquely per member settings.

Another aspect of this disclosure are Maffle targets fingerprinted withunique patterns for identification or redirection, such that the targetarea is superimposed with content when viewed by a Maffle-aware hardwaredevice such as a television. For example, a Maffle targeteer in thecrowd at a football game, instead of wearing a generic Maffle T-shirt,which may not always be technologically relatable to the member, wears aT-shirt printed with a target comprising a unique extractable code suchthat the code connects the target to the member. Preferably a differentmember watching the game on TV is shown content comprising being relatedto their relationship with the member wearing the target.

At 794 an example target is shown with red, green and blue areas ofcolor within a graphic design. Typical camera sensors comprise RGBchannel components so targets preferably comprise colors chosen tomaximize differentiation between channels.

At 795 an alternative color combination uses three colors each a blendof two of the RGB color channels, in this case yellow, cyan and magenta.

At 798 another design is shown incorporating both individual RGBchannels and blended channels forming a unique pattern. The backgroundfields of the circular areas of RGB colors comprise the combination ofthe two channels not within the color circle, and are similar in area.For example the cyan area behind the red circle is comprised of equalparts of the blue and green channels. At 799 a similar pattern fitswithin a circle.

At 796 the color areas of 794 are in the form of closely spaced lines,each with a different angular orientation. The lines further facilitatemachine recognition and may also be combined with optical grids placedbefore an image sensor generating moire patterns, such that the patternscan be detected at a smaller size as described later with FIG. 37 . At797 radial grids or closely spaced circles or circular arcs preferablyin different colors may alternatively be utilized.

Wearable and Human Targets

FIG. 36 shows two embodiments of Maffle targets used for elementsuperimposition on a person. Celebrities on television and other media,in this figure example a golfer, earn income by wearing corporate brandnames and logos—a shameful embarrassment for the celebrity, decorated uplike a carnival clown. Slick men in suits surgically place the logos formaximum visibility on the doe-eyed young celebrity like florescent tailspinned all over a hapless donkey. The celebrity is then wound-up andreleased, strutting around on camera like a paint-balled dodo bird. Thecelebrity signs a contract for a fixed income over time regardless oftheir subsequent fame or media exposure. The sponsoring corporationsadly risks the golfer developing a nasty pull-hook, subsequent maritalproblems and attendant negative publicity.

An aspect of this disclosure now described provides for a generic brandor content display location on a person by which any logo, brand orcontent may be superimposed or displayed for which the person used fordisplay is compensated for each use of the display location byindividual viewers.

Another aspect of this disclosure is providing for the person who iswearing the display location to set filters and limitations on what isdisplayed to MAFFLE SUPERIMPOSERS. A superimposer defined as anyone whosees ad pool or other content superimposed over a Maffle target anywherewithin the Maffle ecosystem on any device.

For example, the golfer or the golfer’s management, having a Maffleprofile, sets preferences in their profile such that only a basket ofcertain brands can display to superimposers, such that the golfer andsuperimposer both collect higher payments from the certain brands.Superimposers, having their own profile and settings, may or may nothave such brands in their ad pool, in which case member content may bedisplayed over the target or the target is ignored.

Another aspect of this disclosure is the celebrity setting their profilesuch that any combination of ad pool or content is seen by superimposersin any combination of frequency or percentages. For example, the golferis sponsored by Acme Golf and Funni Putters, and also has a favoritecharity. The golfer sets their profile so that the Acme Golf brand isseen by a superimposer 70 percent of the time the golfer’s target isvisible to the superimposer (assuming Acme Golf is accepted in thesuperimposer’s ad pool), Funni Putters is visible 22 percent of thetime, and the charity image, brand or donation information is seen bythe superimposer 8 percent of the time.

A further aspect of this disclosure is using any existing brand or logoprinted on the clothing or body of a celebrity being machine identified,its coordinates, warp, skew and plane computed, and such area used as aMaffle target for member ad pool or content superimposition. Theidentification of a brand or logo comprises fingerprinting of thegraphic such that the graphic itself is not stored or accessed, or crowdsharing of brand and logo identification information.

Another aspect of this disclosure is the consumer-directed, machinestorage of brand and logo design, such that previously flagged brandsand logos are automatically machine identified and evaluated forsuperimposition, removal or blurring on a device controlled by theconsumer.

Another aspect of this disclosure is a combination of clothing worn on aperson comprising a Maffle target. For example, the Maffle celebritygolfer always wears a bright yellow hat, orange shoes and an orangecollar. The combination of colors and positions on the human figure aremachine recognizable and form altogether a Maffle target. One advantageof the target comprising a human figure is that the figure can bemachine recognized when very small on a display screen. For example, thegolfer can be identified and superimposed on or near when far down thefairway during a televised golf tournament.

Another aspect of this disclosure is human gait as a Maffle target. Thegait of each human is unique and machine recognizable. Sample pointsfrom a human’s body in motion are calculated over time for arms, legs,hands, feet, head and torso and compared against data for known humans.The combination of movement of the various points on the body ascompared against each other over time vary between individuals such thata celebrity may be identified from a distance based only on their gait.

Another aspect of this disclosure is facial recognition as a Maffletarget, comprising identifying a face using a machine, identifying theextent of the individual’s body using a machine, and calculating asuperimposition target area or volume on a location on or near the body.For example, the face of a celebrity golfer is identified by a machineand the location of the front of their hat is calculated. Thecoordinates, area, skew and warp of the hat area are calculated and usedto display the Funni Putter logo on a member’s television during a golftournament along with a medallion and payment information.

Another aspect of this disclosure is combining a Maffle target withindividual machine recognition such that the target is general inconfiguration and related to an individual by a machine-recognizedaspect of the individual such as a face or a gait.

As discussed in FIG. 39 , any kind of unique artwork, image or graphicis suitable as a Maffle target, so a celebrity may choose beautiful andstylish decoration for their persons instead of garish and offensivebrands and logos while earning equivalent sponsorship payments.

Wearable Target Examples

FIG. 36 are two embodiments of superimposition targets on a person. At785 the Maffle target at 794 in FIG. 39 is embroidered or printed at theleft chest location.

An aspect of this disclosure is when an ad is chosen for an ad pool witha matching engine, the brand or logo design for the related company maybe included in the ad pool for use throughout the Maffle ecosystem inlocations appropriate for brands and logos instead of intact ads.

In this example, a member watching this golfer on television sees abrand or logo from their ad pool in place of the target 785, along witha payment medallion. At 784, the six-color target at 798 in FIG. 39 isshown on the front of the ball cap. The watching member likewise sees abrand or logo from their ad pool in place of the target.

Alternatively, the member can see anything from their ad pool or contentlibrary or intermission content per 266 in FIG. 21 . For example, themember sees the French translation appear on the front of the golfer’shat of everything the golfer says in English because the member isrunning a language training application on their Maffle TV. Or perhapsthe member is holding a video call with his wife, who’s face appears onthe hat during the conversation, so the member doesn’t miss any excitinggolf action. When the camera angle switches to a different golfer whomthe member has muted in his profile because of the golfer’s lifestylechoices and inelegant swing, the member’s wife’s face appearssuperimposed over the face of the inelegant golfer, greatly improvingthe golfer’s looks but not his swing.

Another Example Target Design

The example target in FIG. 35 is comprised of colored circles at thevertices of a rectangle with the dimensions 776 high, by the sum of 774and 775 wide, and at the mid point of a long edge, with complimentarycolors arranged to maximize the distance between complimentary pairs per774 and 775. Alternatively, the dimensions are equal, forming a squarepattern, or the triangles are equilateral, the pattern shape anddimensions not intended to be limiting.

At 770 the red circle is on a vertex of a triangle within the rectanglealong with the other primary channel colors, green and blue in order tomaximize their separation. A machine looking for a triangular pattern ofRGB colors therefore will detect the pattern at the smallest pixel sizepossible. Another triangle within the rectangle comprises circles on thetriangle’s vertices with the intermediate colors cyan, magenta andyellow made up of the two-color blends of the primary colors. A machinehaving found the RGB triangle may then verify the Maffle target byconfirming the overlapping CMY triangle.

A further addition to the target to aid machine differentiation aretriangular grid areas 771 and 772 with line directions at right angles.Such finely spaced grids can be distinguished by moire interferencepatterns at sizes smaller than the pixel resolution of the recordingcamera. The moire patterns may be a consequence of the image sensor griddesign, or created optically with a pre-sensor grid as described laterfor FIG. 37 . The grid 771 may additionally form a unique code byvarying the spacing and width of the lines, and in a unique combinationwith the code embedded in the second area 772, so that the individualtarget and hence celebrity or member may be machine identified.

In the example at 777 the superimposed image as seen by a Maffle memberon a television or other device shows the located target on the golfer’sback with an ad from the member’s ad pool positioned to fit over thetarget area. At 778 a Maffle medallion is displayed showing that themember has collected 0.1 Maffles by being exposed to the ad, and thatclicking the ad or medallion to see more information about Moe’s Dinerwill result in an additional 1.25 Maffles. Some examples of otherpossible information that might be displayed are Maffle’s per minute ofexposure with a dynamically updated total, and how much the golferwearing the target is collecting.

Moire Pattern Detection

FIG. 37 is a diagram of an optical grid 789 and garment grid 788 pairused for creating a detectable moire pattern by a distant camera 790. At788 a grid of lines is shown printed on the back of a golfer. The gridis shown as a single rectangle for illustration purposes but ispreferably comprised within a Maffle target design as describedpreviously. The lines may vary in width and spacing and may be curves orcircular arcs. Any pattern that can create a moire pattern iscontemplated by this disclosure.

At 789 a coordinating optical grid is placed before the image sensor ofa camera 790, such that when the camera records an image of the grid onthe golfer 788, a moire pattern is created by the optical interferencebetween grids 788 and 789 causing a downward heterodyning of the spacingof grid 788 such that the grid can be detected at distances greater thanthe grid can be detected without the optical grid 789.

One skilled in the art knows that a behavior of digital cameras forexample with CCD detectors, is an unintended moire effect created whenphotographing unresolved grids and patterns. An aspect of thisdisclosure is the purposeful use of the inherent generation of moirepatterns by digital cameras to identify a distant target.

For example a grid pattern for a target is designed to intentionallycreate a machine recognizable moire pattern when photographed by acertain model of camera without the need for optical grid 789. Oneskilled in the art knows that camera manufacturers can remove anti-moiretechnology in order to take advantage of the moire effect as described.

Another aspect of this disclosure is a camera comprising a beam splitterand an image detector designed to maximize moire effects. Another aspectof this disclosure are two cameras aimed in synchronization such thatone of the cameras detects a moire pattern and coordinates of thepattern are computationally associated with the image from the othercamera. For example, a moire-optimized camera searches the crowd fortargets at a football game. When a target is acquired, the coordinatesof the target as measured by the camera and targeteer information arecomputationally combined with the image of the non-moire camera suchthat the target area may be identified and superimposed upon. Thecoordinated cameras can have differing focal lengths.

In FIG. 37 , optical grid 789 is depicted in front of camera 790 but ispreferably located inside the camera 790 and between the camera lens andthe image detector. No limitation is implied about the configuration ofthe optical grid 789, camera lens and image detector. Furthermore, theoptical grid 789 may be in the form of a transparent digital displayscreen such that the grid design may be electronically varied.

An aspect of this disclosure is a camera comprising a transparent gridscreen with programmable patterns in front of an image sensor. Thetransparent grid screen can display any pattern, for example radialgrids, lines, curves using pixelated display technology known to oneskilled in the art for example using LCD technology. For example, thegrid pattern may switch between grid scales and patterns many times persecond while a machine evaluates the resultant image until it recognizesa moire pattern or any distinguishing optical effect caused by thecombination of the distant pattern and the pattern on the digitaldisplay. The transparent grid pattern may further comprise colors. Nolimitation is implied about what is displayed on the transparent gridscreen or the design of the detectable coordinating target.

Additional Applications

It is contemplated and another aspect of this disclosure that thedescribed moire pattern detection can be applied for any application forexample, the long distance recognition of labels on products, vehiclesor other signage.

Moire Grid Spacing Variation

FIG. 38 is a diagram of grid line spacing varying over the width of agrid pattern to create a unique moire pattern. The abscissa of the graphis the X distance of a grid line from the origin of the pattern, and theordinate is the spacing between adjacent grid lines. When a grid ofevenly spaced elements of suitable scale are used to create a combinedmoire effect, the locations of the troughs of the curve where the linesare spaced the most closely will appear as optical bars of higherdensity then the peaks where the lines are spaced more widely.

Referring now to FIG. 11 at 555 as previously described, the circulararcs are varied in radial displacement and angular direction to form apattern visible even to the naked eye. A machine can recognize andextract the unique pattern and match it with identifying information sothat the location may be used as specified by the publisher ordisplaying entity of the pattern. 555 is a radial example similar to thelinear line pattern shown at 791.

Target in Virtual Space

FIG. 9 is a drawing of a Maffle target appearing in a virtualenvironment in either 2D or 3D. The author of the virtual environmentplaces targets anywhere within the virtual space, and computationalprocesses extract the target coordinates during the exploration of thespace. The target may be either a 2D area or a 3D volume. Preferably,the target coordinates, for example four corners in XYZ space, arestored with the data defining the environment such that they may beaccessed directly by the computational process controlling the Mafflesuperimpositions without requiring an image recognition step.

At 544 a Maffle target is shown placed on a virtual building along witha payment medallion 545. The medallion shows the payments accruing tothe exploring member, payment for clicking into the ad, a sale tag and abonus coin stack. The publisher of the environment, for example a game,is preferably paid Maffles as a share of ad payments chronologicallymade to the member similar to as described in FIG. 14 , Purchasing viaAd Consumption.

For example, a virtual department store comprised of hundreds of Maffletargets as 3D prismatic volumes and 2D wall posters and signage isexplored by a member using a device. One skilled in the art willrecognize the environment can be constructed using available 3Dgame-authoring software environments and suitable computer hardware. Thestore is automatically populated upon visitation by the member withproducts the member desires as determined by their profile and ads fromtheir ad pool. 3D models of desired products are scaled and fit withinthe store’s 3D target volumes. An aspect of this disclosure is the adpool comprising 2D and 3D models of objects and products that may besuperimposed onto or within Maffle targets.

Billboard Targets

FIG. 10 is a drawing of a billboard with a Maffle target. See FIG. 6 ,Exploring Ads, described previously for additional detailed descriptionabout billboard targets.

At 550 a medallion is displayed for example on a heads-up windshielddisplay as seen from inside a car, and while an ad pool ad issuperimposed on the billboard target.

Printed Targets

FIG. 11 is a printed newspaper bearing Maffle targets 555 and 554. SeeFIG. 6 , Exploring Ads, described previously for additional detaileddescription about printed targets. Also see the description for FIG. 18, Digital News Site, for a similar and applicable description of adpayments made to a publisher and auto subscription by a member.

For example, a member uses a software application on heads-up glasseswhile reading a printed newspaper. The application detects Maffletargets and superimposes images or ads that pay the member and publishersimultaneously until the publisher has been fully compensated per anautomatically negotiated limit, after which the member collects allsubsequent payments.

Maffle Targets and Content Superimposition Part II

Returning now to FIG. 34 , at step 403 frames are searched by machinefor Maffle target color and pattern combinations. At step 405 moirepatterns per FIGS. 37 and 38 are identified by machine. Maffle targetsmay further comprise polarized materials, such that polarization filterson a camera will isolate the targets aiding machine identification. Atstep 407 and after a target has been detected and analyzed, a 2D adfield or area or 3D volume is determined to fit over or within thetarget.

At step 408 the target host is determined, for example by the facialrecognition or gait of a celebrity; a target with a uniqueidentification pattern, code or number; a unique target such as a workof art; a targeteer uploading geospatial coordinates that fall inside acomputed camera field-of-view; a building or location with uploadedgeospatial coordinates in a field of view; or by identification of theprogram material, such examples not intended to be limiting.

Maffle Real-Time Analysis

At step 411 computers at a Maffle-controlled location complement theprocessing power of devices controlled by Maffle members, preferably inreal-time and in parallel to the activity of a member. Real-timebroadcast signals on various channels via over-the-air, cable or networkare simultaneously analyzed by computational processes with optionalhuman supervision for relevant elements, such as Maffle targets, asdescribed previously in conjunction with generating a content map inFIG. 22 .

At step 413 target areas and volumes identified at step 411 are streamedover a network in parallel to the broadcast to member devices.

Final Superimposition

At step 387 ad pool or other content as determined by the member’sprofile is superimposed over the determined areas or inside volumes,along with feathering and blending of edges to match image backgrounds.

At step 389 Maffles accumulate based on the duration and visibility ofads and bank to the member periodically with a satisfying display andsound.

At step 391 and door number 15 the process returns to FIG. 21 at step232 and door number 15.

Maffle TV Part IV

At step 234 and door number 17, the program continues to FIG. 40 .

Object, Element and Person Recognition

FIG. 40 is a flow chart of locating objects, elements and persons in aprogram stream. At step 804 and door number 17 coming from FIG. 21 , themodule is accessed at step 805.

At step 806 computational processes for image recognition comprisingpattern matching, neural networks and machine learning detect, evaluateand measure objects, people and elements. The hardware and softwareperforming the computational processes is preferably comprised withinthe Maffle TV, but may be on a separate device or on a network, forexample at a Maffle-controlled location such as a data center. Thecomputational methods for recognizing and locating elements is notintended to be limiting and includes any form of image recognition andAl.

At step 807 a recognized element is categorized per the description ofcontent maps in FIG. 23 and its timecode recorded. At step 808 aperimeter is determined around the element as a 2D area or a 3D volumeand the perimeter is tracked over time as the element moves within ascene.

At step 809 preferably related to an action taken by a member, afingerprint is generated for the element comprising a uniquechronological pattern related to the content to increase thecomputational efficiency of recognizing the element wherever it lateroccurs.

At step 810 and door number 19 the program returns to FIG. 21 at step236 and door number 19.

Maffle TV Part V

At step 238 in FIG. 21 the program stream now exits the content mappingecosystem and offensive elements as determined by the member’s elementactions settings 284 are blocked visually and aurally by blurring,masking, removing and muting.

At step 240 when elements the member likes and desires per 284 arepending, the member is alerted by a visual cue or sound either on the TVor another device per the member preferences. Elements the member likesthat are present in the content are emphasized graphically or sonicallyper profile settings.

At step 242 unwanted ads, brands and logos are replaced with ad poolads, brands and logos preferably buffered 260, or intermission content266 per the member profile and intermission settings 286. Paymentscollected as displayed with Maffle medallions accrue to the member’sbalance at 274.

At step 244 intermissions (commercial breaks) are specified within thechannel content map 256, or determined by Maffle or the manual input oneor more other members and downloaded to the Maffle TV over a network inparallel with the channel content or as embedded data within the channelcontent.

Basic Commercial Break Detector

An aspect of this disclosure is the setting of preferences by which a TVwatcher determines what should happen during commercial breaks, andautomatically modifying the picture and audio of the TV during thecommercial breaks in accordance with the preferences.

One skilled in the art will recognize upon reading this disclosure thatthis basic function can be implemented as a stand-alone feature of aMaffle TV even without a Maffle member network or other aspects ofMaffle as described in this disclosure.

The Maffle TV comprises a stream of program channels from anover-the-air broadcast, cable service or internet network, analternative content source comprising video and audio, and hardware andsoftware to automatically modify the video or audio displayed to aviewer during a commercial break. The commercial break on a channel isremotely located by Maffle and transmitted to the TV by a network; bythe remote action of one or more viewers of the channel and transmittedto the local TV by a network, or by computational processes executing onthe local TV.

For example, a viewer obtains a Maffle TV set-top box which has an HDMIinput and output. They connect the HDMI output from their cable box tothe HDMI input on the Maffle TV box. They connect the Maffle TV HDMIoutput to the input on the TV. The Maffle TV box connects to a wi-finetwork and with the mobile phone of the viewer.

The viewer uses an application running on their phone to set preferencesthat specify that during commercial breaks family videos on the phonewill play on the TV display and songs from the viewer’s music library onthe phone will play on the TV speakers, which happens automaticallywithout further intervention.

The viewer alternatively uses the application running on their phone tomanually mute the TV during a commercial break, and unmute the TV whenthe commercial break is over. The timing of these two events istransmitted to Maffle over the wi-fi network, Maffle combines andaverages the timing of the actions of many viewers, and downloads thetiming to the Maffle TV’s of all the viewers, such that the devices ofall viewers may use commercial break timing information insynchronization.

Mob Mute Part I

FIG. 32 is a flow chart of mobs (a group comprising more than onemember) participating in the network timing of commercial breaks orother AV events in a channel, presentation or AV output. At step 742 theprocess begins and at step 743 user inputs are made by a member using aninterface such as a remote control (see remote control 671 in FIG. 20 ),game controller or computer application with physical contact,physiological measurement, body gesture or voice indication. Any way ofindicating the start and end of a section of programming or defining anAV event such as specifying a target is contemplated and the previouslist is not intended to be limiting.

Similar steps as described in this section further apply to thegeneration or modification of content maps as described previously andper FIG. 22 . Although this section describes a mute function as anexample, no limitation is implied about what constitutes an AV event.Furthermore, it is not a requirement for the user inputs of a pluralityof members to be made at or near the same time, since the user inputsare always related to the chronology of the AV content, not when the AVcontent is presented.

At step 744 the member’s profile determines their participation in thenetwork timing and mob functions, and a scheme for how to processvarious types of AV events. At step 745 the member watches AV content ona channel presented on a hardware device. The presentation or AV outputis determined by a device controller that determines the final output ofaudio transducers and/or a display device. One example of a devicecontroller is a Maffle TV described previously and in FIGS. 19, 20 and21 , connected to speakers and a display. At step 746 if the member isparticipating in the mob and indicates the beginning of a commercialbreak at step 747 and per 743, that timing, channel, AV event, and AVcontent information (response data) is uploaded to Maffle on a networkat step 753. The device controller and interface preferably form asystem in communication with Maffle. Alternatively, the interfacecommunicates separately but in parallel with the device controller forexample via an app on a mobile device.

At step 754 the timing information and response data uploaded to Mafflefrom all the members participating on a given channel, presentation orAV output at the same point in time of the AV content are combined andevaluated by a computing system to determine a beginning or end anddefine a detected event indicator. The detected event indicatorcomprises a chronological relationship to the AV content and an AVevent. An alternative embodiment is for the computing system to be inthe form of a decentralized, peer-to-peer network comprising using themember’s processors.

Mute/Unmute Response Curve

FIG. 33 is a graph of a mob mute response curve 764 that is the sum ofall responses (response data) of a given type over a period of time. Analgorithm, trained machine, or neural network determines the probabilityof the incoming network mute or unmute timings representing an actualcommercial break, considering that certain timings will have beenuploaded by members in error. The algorithm comprises a rate-of-changeportion, a percent participation portion, and a reliable-memberweighting portion.

Certain members will be more reliable or react more quickly than othersper 765 and 757 in FIG. 32 , and the algorithm weighs the responses fromreliable members more highly than a random member.

Any member’s performance can be measured once a timing has been declaredby comparing their response to the total response at step 755 in FIG. 32. This measurement can be stored with a member’s profile 744 in FIG. 32and be used to determine their weighting for future mutes or for rewardsand incentives to improve and participate per step 756 in FIG. 32 .

At 766 the algorithm threshold is reached and a mute or unmute isdeclared as a detected event indicator, and downloaded to all receivingmember’s devices on the network per step 758 in FIG. 32 .

Mob Mute Part II

In FIG. 32 at step 751 the mob mute and unmute timing information(detected event indicator) is obtained by the device controller from anetwork for the current channel, presentation or AV output. At step 748the channel is muted or unmuted by the direct action of the member perstep 746 if they are not participating in the mob; automatically by thedownloaded mute timing or detected event indicator per step 751, orautomatically if a stored fingerprint of the content of a commercialbreak is detected per step 752. Alternatively for other AV event types,the device controller is triggered by the detected event indicator tomodify the presentation or AV output in accordance with thepredetermined scheme retrieved at step 744. For example, the face of acelebrity for which the member has no fondness is predetermined to bereplaced by the face of the member’s cat.

At step 749 the fingerprint of the commercial break content is storedfor reference by step 752 for determining future commercial breaks thatbegin with the same content.

At step 750 a muted channel stands by for unmute.

Maffle TV Part VI

At step 246 in FIG. 21 elements inside the program are overlaid with adpool ads, brands and logos per element action settings 284 and paymentsaccrue to the member balance at 274.

At 248 if Maffle-registered, the content producer is paid from themember’s balance 274 or via ad consumption per the description for FIG.14 (Purchasing via Ad Consumption). At step 252 the content producer ispreferably paid by increments of time such as by the second, minute orhour, which rewards good content, and reduces payments for bad content.

At step 250 the results are displayed to the member.

Maffle Radio

FIG. 41 is a timeline of Maffle radio replacing ads and content per amember profile. Audio content is listened to by the member using acomputational device running a dedicated software application orbrowser, such as a computer or mobile phone, or a hardware device suchas a portable radio, car radio, or television.

An audio PROGRAM STREAM is obtained via a network, over-the-airterrestrially or from Earth orbit, or from a locally stored locationsuch as flash memory. The program stream is shown as the horizontaltimeline at the bottom of FIG. 41 .

A MAFFLE STREAM comprising ad pool audio content and member content suchas songs in the member’s song library is concurrently available to theprogram stream.

At the top of the figure a content map for all audio elements ispreferably obtained in parallel to the content from a network, asembedded digital information in the content stream or superimposed onthe content stream for example at an ultrasonic, inaudible frequency. AMaffle-friendly broadcast channel preferably generates and provides acontent map for their broadcast content.

As time elapses, SONG 1 and SONG 2 play to the member. At 814 acommercial break is delineated in the content map or computationallydetected by a machine using a match to a previously stored fingerprint,algorithmic processes, machine learning, pattern recognition, neuralnetworks or other artificial intelligence. Alternatively, the commercialbreak is collectively delineated by a mob as described in FIG. 32 andthe timing downloaded to the member’s device automatically as part ofthe content map or Maffle stream. Also alternatively, Maffle remotelyanalyzes the program stream in parallel and downloads commercial breaktiming information as previously described in FIGS. 21 and 34 .

Once a commercial break has been detected, a fingerprint for thebeginning of the ad content is extracted, comprising a uniquechronological combination of data related to the audio waveform, andmade available for future detection of a commercial break.

At 814 an audio ad from the member’s ad pool plays instead of theprogram stream ad. An aspect of this disclosure is a SONIC MEDALLIONusing beeps, bells, tones or other sounds or noises, to indicate to themember that they have collected Maffles and preferably how many. Forexample, two bells means 0.5 Maffles were paid. Alternatively, in theradio application or on another device with a display, a medallion isdisplayed showing the payment amounts.

When the commercial break ends, the audio output returns to the programstream at SONG 3 automatically.

Using a software application input, hardware control, voice control,gesture or body movement, detected brainwave indicating dislike, eyemovement or determination by the member’s simulacrum, a member mayindicate that a song or artist is not to their liking, which is storedin their profile and made available to the radio playback device. Themember may further identify artists and songs they like to increasetheir future playback frequency.

At 815 a disliked song in the member’s profile begins to play on aprogram stream without a content map. The song is computationallyrecognized using a previously stored fingerprint, and the audio outputis automatically cross-faded at 816 from the program stream to themaffle content stream, in this example playing a song owned by themember in their personal song library. If the program stream hadincluded a content map, the song would have been replaced before everplaying to the member because the content map comprises the song titleand when the song starts and stops.

When the disliked song ends, the audio output automatically returns tothe program stream to play SONG 5.

Maffle-friendly broadcasters are preferably paid chronologically via adconsumption as previously described in FIG. 14 and elsewhere in thisdisclosure. Members may also listen to radio entirely ad-free whilepaying broadcasters from their existing Maffle balance. In this manner,for example, a member might collect Maffles while browsing the internetor watching TV, and spend them in order to listen to ad-free radio.

Automatic Performance Royalty Payments

As described in detail in FIG. 23 , the content map may comprise thepublishing details of a song played by a broadcaster, including theartist, the composer, the song publisher and the owner of the masterrecording, each with a related Maffle membership ID and licensing androyalty subdivisions and terms. An aspect of this disclosure is suchintellectual property information being evaluated at the time anartistic work is broadcast, such that chronological payments for suchbroadcast is automatically divided in accordance with a content map andpaid to the relevant parties automatically.

This aspect of the disclosure is most beneficial to less prominentartists and performers because every single performance of their workresults in a direct payment. Furthermore, since the performance paymentis triggered by a member and paid through a Maffle account, swindlinginternet radio stations cannot rip-off starving artists as is currentlycommonplace.

For example, a Maffle radio internet site allows only Maffle members andMaffle-registered songs to play. The site publisher streams songs alongwith content maps, which cannot play without compensation to the song IPowners.

Stream-To-Own Songs

An aspect of this disclosure is a member indicating a song they wish toown, comprising paying a higher percentage of ad pool exposure paymentschronologically related to each broadcast of the song until a purchaseprice has been reached, after which a perpetual license for the song isacquired by the member.

Song Content Map Elements

As described previously in FIG. 23 , the content map for a song maycomprise the musical notes, instruments, lyrics, and related data ordata files such as a music video for the song. The playback applicationor device may include the ability to display such information to themember, for example for an extra cost. For example, a member listeningto a radio station on their television may pay extra Maffles to see theguitar tablature of the song on the screen as the song plays, along witha video track included in the content map of only the guitarist’sfingers.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: (a) a device controllerconnectable to a network configured to integrate with a hardware deviceadapted to output an AV (audio and/or video) content item, the systemfurther comprising: a first processor configured to combine a private AVcontent item with a public AV content item; a second processorconfigured to privately filter an AV content item from a collection ofpublic AV content items; (b) persistent machine-readable storageconfigured to store a private AV content collection comprising theprivate AV content item, and further configured to be accessible by thedevice controller; (c) a fourth processor configured to transfer apayment from a source to a recipient; a fifth processor configured toreceive a content map; a sixth processor configured to manipulate pixelsin a region on the AV output; a seventh processor configured for imagerecognition; an eighth processor configured to calculate warp, scalingand rotation to fit an image to a foreshortened or distorted pixel arearelated to a person.
 2. A method of altering AV (audio and/or video)output, comprising: providing a private device controller connectable toa network and configured to associate with a hardware device adapted tooutput an AV content item, the private device controller furthercomprising a public AV ad collection filter; providing a private AV adcollection to the device controller comprising a private AV ad with apresentation value, wherein the private AV ad is privately selected froma collection of public AV ads by the private collection filter;identifying a financial recipient; presenting a public AV content itemcombined with the private AV ad, wherein presenting the private AV adcauses a payment to be transferred to a credit account controlled by theviewer; providing a content map privately editable by a private member,whereas the private content map changes the presentation of the privateAV ad; further comprising a celebrity with a credit account and anoptical target emblazoned on the celebrity; the private AV ad furthercomprising an origin, orientation and size, and the celebrity appearingin the public AV content item; further comprising the steps ofperforming image recognition on the optical target and extractingchronologically variable coordinates defining an envelope, superimposingthe private AV ad such that the origin, orientation and size of theprivate AV ad match the envelope, whereas the private AV ad appears tobe stationary and affixed upon the celebrity, and causing a payment tobe transferred from a credit account controlled by the owner of theprivate AV ad to a credit account controlled by the celebrity.
 3. Themethod of claim 2, wherein the content map comprises the chronologicallocation of intellectual property (IP) within the public AV content itemas specified by the public AV content item producer, an IP financialrecipient, and a presentation value, and wherein presenting the IPcauses a proportion of the presentation value to be transferred to acredit account controlled by the IP financial recipient, wherein theproportion is determined by the percentage presented of the total IPpresentation value.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the content mapcomprises chronologically variable coordinates defining an envelope, andchronologically variable image data defining an alpha mask; and theprivate AV content item further comprises an origin, orientation andsize; and further comprising the step of superimposing the private AVcontent item on the foreground layer such that the origin, orientationand size of the private AV content item match the envelope; andsubtracting the alpha mask from the private AV content item, such thatthe private AV content item appears embedded within the public AVcontent item.
 5. The method of claim 3, wherein the content mapcomprises IP financial ownership percentages between multiple financialrecipients, wherein the presentation value is transferred to the creditaccounts controlled by each recipient in accordance with theirpercentage ownership of the IP.
 6. The method of claim 2, wherein the adis a logo, trademark or brand name.
 7. The method of claim 2, whereinthe optical target is on an object near the celebrity.
 8. The method ofclaim 2, wherein the optical target is on headgear, clothing orequipment worn by the celebrity.
 9. The method of claim 2, wherein theoptical target is on an object being held or attached to the celebrity.10. The method of claim 2, wherein the optical target is in the samefield of view as the celebrity.
 11. The method of claim 2, wherein thecelebrity can whitelist and blacklist ads, whereas whitelisted ads arefavored by the private AV ad filter, and blacklisted ads are eliminatedby the private AV ad filter.